GIFT    OF 
EVGENE  MEYER-^R. 


THE  LAWYER 

THE  STATESMAN  AND 

THE  SOLDIER 


BY 

GEORGE   S.   BOUTWELL 


We  value  a  man  by  the  measure  of  his 
strength  at  the  place  where  he  is  strongest. 


NEW  YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1887 


COPVRIGHT,  1887, 
BY  GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  preparation  of  these  sketches  is  due  to 
the  circumstance  that  it  is  my  fortune  to  have 
had  the  acquaintance  of  the  persons  to  whom 
the  sketches  relate.  These  pages  may  show  the 
marks  of  friendship  rather  than  the  skill  of  the 
biographer  or  the  research  of  the  historian.  I 
have  written  in  obedience  to  the  rule  or  maxim 
that  we  value  a  man  by  the  measure  of  his 
strength  at  the  place  where  he  is  strongest. 
Human  errors  and  weaknesses,  from  which  none 
of  us  are  exempt,  can  not  be  set  off  properly 
against  great  thoughts  expressed  or  great  acts 
performed.  Errors  and  weaknesses  mar  the  man, 
but  they  can  not  qualify  the  greatness  achieved. 


297746 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

RUFUS  CHOATE,  THE  LAWYER       .          .  i 

DANIEL  WEBSTER,  THE  STATESMAN         .  .  .44 

-  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN,  THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR    90 

GENERAL  GRANT,  THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN         .  150 


THE  LAWYER,  THE  STATESMAN, 
AND  THE  SOLDIER. 


RUFUS     CHOATE. 

IF  in  imagination  we  can  command  the  pres 
ence  of  a  man  only  less  than  six  feet  in  height,  with 
a  full,  deep  breast,  high  and  unseemly  shoulders, 
hips  and  legs  slender  and  in  appearance  weak,  arms 
long,  hands  and  feet  large  and  ill-formed,  a  head 
broad,  chaste,  symmetrical,  covered  with  a  luxu 
riant  suit  of  black,  glossy,  wavy  hair,  a  face  intel 
lectually  handsome  and  equally  attractive  to  men 
and  to  women,  a  complexion  dark  and  bronzed  as 
becomes  the  natives  of  the  tropical  isles  of  the  East, 
a  beard  scanty  and  vagrant,  mouth  and  nose  large, 
lips  thin  and  long,  an  eye  black,  gentle  and  winning 
in  repose,  but  brilliant,  commanding,  and  persuasive 
in  moments  of  excitement — we  shall  have  thus  and 
now  created  an  imperfect  picture  of  Rufus  Choate 
as  he  presented  himself  to  his  contemporaries  when 
his  physical  qualities  had  not  been  wasted  by  dis 
ease  nor  impaired  by  age. 

And  if  from  this  sketch  we  are  in  doubt  whether 


a;  i/i  it\  RUFUS  CHOATE 

the  subject  of  it  was  an  attractive  person,  we  should 
realize  that  his  manners  and  ways  were  as  gentle  as 
the  manners  and  ways  of  the  best  bred  woman,  that 
to  the  fcoung  he  was  always  kind  and  often  affec 
tionate,  to  the  aged  respectful,  and  that  to  those 
in  authority  he  was  ever  deferential  without  being 
or  appearing  to  be  a  sycophant. 

And  to  these  charms  of  person  and  benignity  of 
manners  we  are  to  superadd  a  voice  that  in  conver 
sation,  debate,  or  oration  was  copious,  command 
ing,  sonorous,  and  emotional,  responding  like  music 
to  every  change  of  thought,  and,  in  its  variety  of 
tone  and  sweep  of  accent  and  emphasis,  touching 
and  influencing  not  only  the  sentiments  and  feel 
ings  but  even  the  opinions  and  judgments  of  men. 
His  vocabulary  knew  no  limits  except  those  set 
by  the  language  itself ;  and  such  was  his  facility  in 
its  use  as  to  extort  from  the  stern  Chief-Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Massachusetts  the 
remark,  when  told  that  Webster's  new  dictionary 
contained  many  thousand  additional  words,  "  I  beg 
of  you  not  to  let  Choate  hear  of  it ! " 

His  gestures  seemed  extravagant  often,  but  they 
were  justified  usually  by  the  wonderful  rhetoric 
which  he  commanded  and  so  used  that  it  was  ac 
cepted  as  the  natural,  the  inevitable  outflow  of  his 
mind.  While  he  seldom  made  a  plain  statement  of 
the  exact  truth  either  in  conversation  or  in  argu- 


THE  LAWYER.  3 

ment,  he  yet  expressed  the  truth  by  a  manifest 
exaggeration  of  the  truth. 

When  he  offered  wine  to  friends  and  omitted  to 
join  them,  he  said,  "  I  keep  a  little  wine  in  my 
house,  but  as  for  myself  I  don't  drink  a  glass  once 
in  a  thousand  years."  Borrowing  the  language  of 
the  profession  in  regard  to  challenges  of  jurors,  he 
said  of  a  brother  at  the  bar  whose  manners  and 
ways  were  disagreeable,  "  Some  persons  we  hate  for 
cause,  but  *  *  *  we  hate  peremptorily." 

Upon  his  return  from  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  in  1842,  standing  in  the  doorway  of  a  meet 
ing-house  then  nearly  a  century  old  in  a  country 
town  of  Massachusetts,  and  speaking  to  the  multi 
tude  within  and  without  the  building,  in  explana 
tion  and  defense  of  the  bankrupt  law  then  recent 
ly  enacted  under  the  lead  of  the  Whig  party,  he 
emphasized  and  made  attractive  the  restoration  to 
active  business  of  the  body  of  bankrupts  by  the  ex 
clamation,  "  In  an  instant  we  created  five  hundred 
thousand  full-grown,  able-bodied  men  !  " 

Mr.  Choate's  facility  in  the  use  of  language,  his 
urbanity  of  manner,  and  his  ability  to  express  con 
tempt  without  wounding  visibly  the  subject  of  it, 
were  illustrated  when  he  was  closing  an  argument 
in  behalf  of  a  client  who  was  seeking  compensation 
for  injury  to  his  person,  his  horse,  carriage,  and 
harness.  Mr.  Choate  discoursed  of  the  injury  to 


4  RUFUS  CHOATK 

his  client,  to  the  horse,  and  to  the  carriage,  and  was 
about  taking  his  seat,  when  his  junior  touched  him 
and  said,  "  You  have  omitted  the  harness."  Though 
annoyed  by  the  suggestion  of  so  insignificant  a 
matter,  he  turned  to  the  jury  and  with  his  accus 
tomed  urbanity,  said — "  Ah,  Mr.  Foreman  and  gen 
tlemen  of  the  jury,  the  harness ! — a  safe,  sound, 
substantial,  serviceable  (pausing  and  dropping  his 
voice),  second-hand  harness/'  and  sat  down. 

Mr.  Choate  lived  and  labored  under  the  influ 
ence  of  that  dainty  and  dangerous  gift  of  nature 
which  finds  relief  only  in  physical  excesses  or  in 
unremitting  intellectual  work — a  sensitive,  nervous 
organization.  He  seldom  indulged  himself  in  amuse 
ments  and  except  when  compelled  by  illness  he  had 
no  relaxation  from  the  toils  of  public  and  profes 
sional  life. 

When  warned  by  an  associate  that  his  constant 
labors  were  imperiling  his  health,  he  said,  "  I  have 
no  alternative  but  the  insane  asylum." 

Again,  when  asked  how  his  constitution  held  out, 
he  answered :  "  That  was  gone  long  ago ;  I  am 
now  living  on  the  by-laws." 

In  Mr.  Choate's  nature  there  was  a  singular 
mixture  of  timidity  and  professional  courage.  It  is 
said  that  in  consultation  with  his  associates  he  was 
too  often  doubtful  of  success,  but,  when  the  excite 
ment  of  the  trial  was  on,  there  were  no  indications 


THE  LAWYER.  5 

of  fear.  His  movements,  tones,  and  arguments 
were  those  of  an  advocate  accustomed  to  victory, 
and  confident  alike  in  his  cause  and  in  the  su 
premacy  of  his  own  powers.  But  his  constitu 
tional  timidity  appeared  in  his  politics  and  in  his 
political  career.  It  was  unfortunately  conspicuous 
in  his  controversy  in  the  Senate  with  Mr.  Clay,  and 
in  his  acceptance  in  1856  of  the  candidacy  of  Mr. 
Buchanan,  manifestly  through  fear  of  a  rupture 
with  the  South.  It  can  not  be  denied,  however, 
that  his  speech  at  Lowell  in  that  year  is  full  of 
statesmanship  mingled  with  solemn  prophecies  as 
to  the  consequences  of  the  slavery  agitation,  if  only 
we  accept  his  thesis  that  it  was  better  to  endure 
slavery  than  to  suffer  the  horrors  of  civil  war.  In 
his  opinion  then,  wre  had  only  a  choice  of  evils.  He 
chose  to  endure  those  we  had,  rather  than  to  fly  to 
others  he  knew  not  of.  Genius  in  oratory  and  ca 
pacity  in  statesmanship  are  not  often  combined  in 
the  same  person. 

Nor  can  it  be  asserted  with  confidence  that 
any  great  orator  was  ever  eminently  successful  in 
the  practicaal  ffairs  of  government. 

Cicero  may  have  been  an  exception,  but  even 
his  career  is  open  to  question  in  that  respect.  Cer 
tainly  the  elder  Pitt,  Burke,  Lamartine,  Kossuth, 
and  Castelar  are  instances  of  failure,  and  some  of 
them  are  conspicuous  examples. 


6  RUFUS  C HO  ATE 

There  is  a  rough  side  to  government,  and  there 
must  be  a  quality  of  harshness  in  the  nature  of 
those  who  administer  governments  successfully. 

Mr.  Choate's  courtesy  was  unfailing.  He  sub 
mitted  deferentially  to  the  verdicts  of  juries  and  to 
the  opinions  of  the  bench.  He  avoided  personal 
controversy  with  his  brethren  at  the  bar,  and  he 
treated  witnesses  upon  the  stand,  whether  friendly 
or  hostile,  with  apparent  kindly  consideration.  It 
was  only  in  argument  that  witnesses  felt  the  force 
and  weight  of  his  keen  satire  and  persuasive  logic. 
His  presence  of  mind  never  failed,  and  his  ready 
resources  in  the  contests  of  the  bar  were  not  less 
remarkable  than  the  brilliancy  of  his  arguments. 

Perhaps  no  advocate  ever  received  a  heavier 
blow  from  a  witness  than  fell  upon  Mr.  Choate 
when  managing  the  defense  of  a  shipmaster  who 
was  charged  with  the  crime  of  robbing  and  sinking 
his  vessel  in  the  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  The 
mate  had  become  a  witness  for  the  Government. 
Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  was  the  prosecuting  district 
attorney.  The  mate  was  a  party  to  the  crime,  and 
it  was  the  theory  of  his  testimony  to  prove  that  the 
captain  originated  the  scheme,  and  that  the  mate 
and  his  associates  were  persuaded  by  the  captain 
to  engage  in  the  undertaking.  In  the  cross-exami 
nation  Mr.  Choate  sought  for  the  inducements  and 
representations  to  which  the  mate  had  yielded. 


THE  LA  WYER.  7 

The  answers  of  the  mate  were  reluctantly  given, 
and  he  evidently  held  something1  back.  At  last  Mr. 
Choate  laid  his  elbows  upon  the  table,  rested  his 
head  upon  his  hands,  and  with  a  persuasive  manner 
and  voice  said,  "  Now,  my  good  fellow,  will  you 
not  tell  us  what  the  captain  said  that  induced  you 
to  engage  in  this  business  ?  "  The  witness  replied 
with  nervous  impetuosity,  and  said,  "  He  told  us 
there  was  a  man  in  Boston  named  Choate  who 
would  get  us  clear,  if  the  money  were  found  in  our 
boots!"  When  the  laughter  and  excitement  had 
subsided,  Mr.  Choate,  without  change  of  voice  or 
manner,  said,  "  Did  my  brother  Rantoul  tell  you  to 
say  that?"  The  witness,  for  a  moment,  was  con 
founded  by  the  address  and  personality  of  the  ques 
tion,  and  after  some  delay  said,  "  No."  Mr.  Choate 
remarked,  "  We  all  knew  he  didn't,  but  why  did 
you  hesitate  about  that,  as  you  have  about  every 
thing  you  have  told  us  to-day  ? "  The  rencontre 
left  a  wound  on  Mr.  Choate,  but  the  mode  of 
escape  was  as  good  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  permitted. 

This  incident  in  his  career,  and  his  successful 
defense  of  Albert  J.  Tirrell  for  the  murder  of  Ma 
ria  Bickford,  were  the  basis  of  the  keen  and  almost 
cruel  attack  made  by  Wendell  Phillips,  in  his  ora 
tion  called  "  The  Boston  Idols." 

The  idols  were  Webster,  Everett,  and  Choate. 


8  RUFUS  CHOATE 

In  approaching  Choate,  he  erected  a  pantheon,  in 
which  he  put  many  of  the  great  gods  of  jurispru 
dence,  and  accompanied  their  names  with  stately 
encomiums. 

Among  these  were  D'Agesseau,  Romilly,  and 
Mansfield.  "  Finally,"  said  the  orator,  "  New  Eng 
land  shrieks,  *  Here  is  Choate,  who  made  it  safe  to 
murder,  and  for  whose  health  thieves  asked  before 
they  began  to  steal ! ' ' 

No  greater  tribute  than  this  could  be  offered, 
either  by  friendly  or  hostile  voice,  to  the  learning, 
skill,  and  genius  of  an  advocate  ;  but  beneath  the 
spoken  word  there  lurks  the  suggestion  that  there 
are  human  powers  so  exalted  and  controlling  that 
they  ought  not  to  be  employed  in  defense  of  per 
sons  charged  with  crime. 

All  crimes  are  primarily  against  the  Govern 
ment,  whatever  may  be  the  personal  circumstances 
attending  their  commission. 

The  sufferers  can  in  no  case  be  their  own  aven 
gers.  In  the  pursuit  and  prosecution  of  criminals 
the  resources  of  a  state  or  of  a  nation  are  at  the 
command  of  the  agents  of  the  Government.  Those 
resources  are  always  greater  than  the  resources 
of  the  most  opulent  individual.  The  Government 
enacts  the  laws,  creates  the  courts,  ordains  the 
mode  of  procedure,  furnishes  the  juries  from  its 
body  of  citizens  ;  and,  since  the  employment  of  Mr. 


THE  LAWYER.  g 

Webster  to  aid  the  Attorney-General  of  Massachu 
setts  in  the  prosecution  of  the  Knapps  for  the  mur 
der  of  Joseph  White,  it  has  been  thought  not  im 
proper  for  Governments  to  retain  eminent  counsel 
and  advocates  to  aid  or  even  to  lead  in  the  trial 
of  persons  charged  with  crime.  The  advantages 
could  not  be  greater  if  it  were  the  maxim  of  Gov 
ernments  that,  for  every  crime  committed,  some 
person  should  suffer  a  penalty.  The  ancient  and 
wiser  maxim,  that  it  is  better  that  ninety  -  nine 
guilty  persons  should  escape  than  that  one  inno 
cent  person  should  suffer,  assumes  that  it  is  a 
higher  duty  to  protect  the  innocent  than  to  punish 
the  guilty.  And  this  duty  always  rests  upon  the 
Government 

It  is,  therefore,  a  wise  public  policy  which  pro 
vides  the  means  of  defense  for  every  person  charged 
with  crime  ;  and  a  healthy  public  sentiment  will  in 
the  end  not  only  tolerate  but  it  will  support  the  ad 
vocate  who  undertakes  the  defense,  even  though 
the  accused  for  the  moment  may  be  enduring  the 
weight  of  an  adverse  and  intolerant  public  judg 
ment. 

It  is  a  public  misfortune,  whose  effects  run  with 
the  ages,  when  great  criminals  even  are  brought  to 
the  bar  and  tried  and  condemned  without  the  sup 
port  and  aid  of  an  able,  vigorous,  and  persistent 
defense.  And  it  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that, 


10  RUFUS  C HO  ATE 

in  cases  where  the  guilt  of  the  party  is  beyond 
question,  he  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  every  de 
fense  which  the  law  authorizes  ;  and  it  should  also 
be  borne  in  mind  that,  if  those  means  are  denied  to 
the  guilty,  the  time  will  soon  come  when  they  will 
not  be  a  shield  to  the  innocent. 

The  line  of  professional  duty  is  clear.  The  at 
torney  is  an  officer  of  the  court.  He  is  to  obey  the 
law,  and  in  his  advice  to  clients  he  is  always  to  di 
rect  them  in  the  line  of  obedience  to  the  law.  Oth 
erwise,  he  becomes  a  participator  in  their  guilt. 
Usually,  however,  the  attorney  is  not  consulted  un 
til  the  law  has  been  violated.  The  accused  is  then 
entitled  to  every  advantage  and  privilege  which 
the  law  allows.  These  the  attorney  and  advocate 
are  to  find  and  to  employ  with  whatever  of  ability 
they  can  command,  and  if  in  the  end  the  ac 
cused  is  found  not  guilty,  the  law  presumes  him 
innocent;  but,  whether  so  or  not,  the  fault,  if 
fault  there  be,  is  with  the  Government  and  its 
agents. 

Lord  Brougham,  in  his  defense  of  Queen  Caro 
line,  went  much  further.  He  maintained  the  ex 
treme,  revolutionary  doctrine  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  counsel  to  pursue  the  defense  of  clients  even  to 
the  destruction  of  the  Government  itself.  This  po 
sition,  however,  he  qualified  subsequently  by  de 
claring  that  he  assumed  it  as  a  menace  to  the  king, 


THE  LAWYER.  II 

and  for  the  purpose  of  staying  the  hand  of  the 
prosecutors. 

Mr.  Choate's  successful  defense  of  Albert  J. 
Tirrell  was  followed  by  severe  criticisms,  and  the 
loss  of  public  esteem  among  those  whose  narrow 
ethics  could  not  comprehend  the  true  relations  of 
the  Government  to  the  individual  members  of 
society.  Tirrell  was  a  young  man  of  irregular 
ways  of  life,  and  Maria  Bickford  was  a  young 
woman  of  great  beauty  and  some  celebrity.  That 
Tirrell  was  her  slayer  there  was  no  doubt.  The 
defense  was  somnambulism  on  the  part  of  Tirrell, 
and  the  habit  was  proved  upon  the  testimony  of 
his  family  and  associates.  The  defense  relied  also 
on  the  absence  of  motive  on  the  part  of  Tirrell. 

Beyond  this  the  witnesses  for  the  Government, 
who  had  knowledge  of  the  facts  occurring  during 
the  night  of  the  murder,  and  in  the  house  where 
the  killing  took  place,  were  persons  of  ill  repute. 
The  jury  found  the  prisoner  not  guilty.  The 
public  found  him  guilty,  and  the  public  made  Mr. 
Choate  responsible  for  the  verdict  of  the  jury. 
When  Mr.  Choate  declined  the  defense  of  Pro 
fessor  Webster,  charged  with  the  murder  of  Dr. 
Parkman,  his  course  was  attributed  to  his  dis 
inclination  to  again  encounter  the  popular  odium. 
It  is  more  probable,  however,  that  Mr.  Choate 
declined  the  defense  because  Professor  Webster 


12  RUFUS  C HO  ATE 

was  unwilling  to  rely  upon  the  actual  facts,  and 
on  which  his  crime  would  have  been  reduced 
from  murder  to  manslaughter. 

Although  Mr.  Choate  was  destitute  of  many 
of  the  qualities  of  statesmanship,  his  views  of 
public  questions  were  those  of  a  statesman.  He 
was  conservative  in  his  opinions,  a  follower  of 
Hamilton,  and  an  associate  and  friend  of  Web 
ster.  If  the  Constitution  of  the  country  had  been 
the  work  of  his  own  hand,  his  devotion  to  it 
could  not  have  been  greater ;  but  he  was  terrified 
by  the  thought  that  it  was  a  band  of  iron  which 
might  be  broken  but  could  never  be  changed. 
The  civil  war,  which  he  dreaded,  but  lived  not  to 
see,  wrought  changes  in  the  Constitution  that  he 
would  have  welcomed. 

Mr.  Choate's  last  public  service  was  in  the  Con 
stitutional  Convention  of  Massachusetts  of  1853. 
In  those  days,  in  Massachusetts,  we  were  blessed 
with  an  excellent  sergeant-at-arms,  who,  through 
the  agency  of  a  boy  blindfolded — a  clairvoyant,  no 
doubt — was  able  usually  to  so  draw  the  numbers 
from  a  box  as  to  secure  a  good  seat  for  the  leading 
men  of  all  parties.  Mr.  Choate  drew  an  end-seat, 
and  it  was  my  fortune  to  secure  the  next  end-seat 
immediately  behind  him.  For  about  three  months 
we  were  thus  associated.  I  enjoyed  his  con 
versation,  observed  his  ways,  and  listened  to 


THE  LAWYER.  13 

his   speeches,    which    were,    in    fact,    always    ora 
tions. 

During  the  months  of  May,  June,  and  July,  Mr. 
Choate  attended  to  some  professional  business,  pre 
pared  and  delivered  his  Dartmouth  eulogy  upon 
Mr.  Webster,  and  participated  in  the  debates  of  the 
convention.  Worthy  of  especial  notice  were  his 
speeches  upon  the  judiciary  and  the  representative 
system.  The  speech  on  the  judiciary  was  deliv 
ered  on  a  hot  day  in  July.  During  all  his  mature 
years  Mr.  Choate  was  subject  to  severe  headaches, 
and  they  often  followed  or  attended  the  excitement 
of  public  efforts.  That  day  he  provided  himself 
with  a  bottle  of  bay-rum,  with  which  he  bathed  his 
head  frequently  and  profusely.  His  gesticulations 
were  so  vigorous  that  drops  of  bay-rum  and  per 
spiration  were  thrown  from  his  hair  and  bespat 
tered  his  neighbors.  His/ speeches  were  usually 
written,  if  the  characters  he  employed  could  be 
called  writing,  inasmuch  as  they  were  illegible  to 
every  one  but  himself.  In  the  delivery,  however, 
he  dealt  only  with  the  sheets  which  he  took  up  and 
held,  and  laid  down  in  succession,  without  appear 
ing  to  read  what  was  written.  Probably  a  word 
suggested  an  entire  sentence  or  even  a  paragraph, 
and  thereupon  his  memory  was  quickened  or  his 
mind  repeated  the  process  of  thought  pursued 
when  the  sentence  or  paragraph  was  written. 


14  RUFUS  CHOATE 

When  engaged  in  the  trial  of  causes  he  usually 
ran  two  sets  of  notes.  Upon  one  he  minuted  ques 
tions  or  topics  to  be  used  in  the  cross-examination 
of  witnesses,  and  upon  the  other  he  noted  points  or 
illustrations  for  his  argument  to  the  jury. 

Neither  eloquence  nor  argument  is  exclusively 
of  the  word  spoken.  The  tones,  the  gestures,  the 
emphasis,  the  accent,  reveal  the  finer  shades  of 
meaning  on  the  one  side  and  enforce  the  argument 
on  the  other.  Therefore,  we  can  institute  no  com 
parison  between  the  orators  that  we  have  heard 
and  the  orators  that  we  have  not  heard.  In  justice 
we  can  only  compare  with  one  another  the  orators 
that  we  have  heard,  and  with  one  another  the 
orators  that  we  have  not  heard. 

Mr.  Choate  was  a  student  in  the  office  of  Will 
iam  Wirt,  and  for  a  year  he  was  a  listener  to  the 
arguments  of  William  Pinckney  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  On  those  models  he 
fashioned  his  career  as  an  advocate,  and  on  those 
models  he  so  improved,  I  imagine,  as,  in  the  end, 
to  defy  rivalry  and  even  comparison.  But  Mr. 
Choate's  laurels  were  gathered  in  a  field  where 
there  were  many  competitors  both  at  the  bar  and 
upon  the  rostrum.  His  antagonists  and  competi 
tors  were  Webster,  Mason,  Franklin  Dexter,  Hil- 
lard,  Dana,  Everett,  Phillips,  and,  whether  at  the 
bar  or  upon  the  platform,  he  could  have  com- 


THE  LAWYER.  15 

manded  an  audience  at  the  expense  of  each  and  all 
of  those  gifted  men. 

To  these  I  may  add,  out  of  my  own  personal 
experience,  the  names  of  Henry  Clay,  J.  McPher- 
son  Berrien,  Thomas  Corwin,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
George  Thompson,  Louis  Kossuth,  as  persons 
quite  unequal  to  contest  with  Rufus  Choate  for 
supremacy  in  ability  to  interest,  instruct,  and  con 
trol  a  popular  assembly, 

Of  Mr.  Choate  it  is  to  be  said  that  his  philoso 
phy  and  his  powers  of  imagination  passed  not  be 
yond  the  relations  of  men  to  men,  and  of  men  to 
things.  Hence,  we  shall  seek  in  vain  for  idealistic 
passages  in  his  speeches  and  writings.  We  shall 
find  nothing  that  can  be  compared  with  Webster's 
great  passage  in  his  eulogy  on  Jefferson  and 
Adams : 

"  A  superior  and  commanding  human  intellect, 
when  Heaven  vouchsafes  so  rare  a  gift,  is  not  a 
temporary  flame  burning  brightly  for  a  while  and 
then  expiring,  giving  place  to  returning  darkness ; 
it  is  rather  a  spark  of  fervent  heat  as  well  as  a  radi 
ant  light,  with  power  to  enkindle  the  common  mass 
of  human  mind,  so  that  when  it  glimmers  in  its 
own  decay,  and  finally  goes  out  in  death,  no  night 
follows,  but  it  leaves  the  world  all  light,  all  on  fire, 
from  the  potent  contact  of  its  own  spirit." 

Nor  any  passage  which  can  be  compared  to 
Buckle's  tribute  to  men  of  thought  and  science : 


16  RUFUS  CHOATE 

11  The  discoveries  of  great  men  never  leave  us. 
They  are  immortal.  They  contain  those  eternal 
truths  that  survive  the  shock  of  empires,  outlive 
the  struggles  of  rival  creeds,  and  witness  the  decay 
of  successive  religions.  All  these  have  their  differ 
ent  standards  and  their  different  measures — one 
set  of  opinions  for  one  age  and  another  set  for  an 
other.  They  pass  away  like  a  dream.  They  are 
as  the  fabric  of  a  vision  which  leaves  not  a  rack 
behind.  The  discoveries  of  genius  alone  remain. 
To  them  we  owe  all  that  we  now  have.  They  are 
for  all  ages  and  all  times.  Never  young  and  never 
old,  they  bear  the  seeds  of  their  own  life.  They 
flow  on  in  a  perennial  and  undying  stream.  They 
are  essentially  cumulative,  and,  giving  birth  to  the 
additions  which  they  subsequently  receive,  they 
thus  influence  the  most  distant  posterity,  and  after 
the  lapse  of  centuries  produce  more  effect  than 
they  could  do  even  at  the  moment  of  their  promul 
gation." 

It  is  a  fortunate  fact  in  the  intellectual  world 
that  the  varieties  of  taste,  power,  and  genius  are  so 
many  and  distinguishing  that  comparisons  elude  us, 
while  contrasts  are  obvious  to  the  most  careless 
observers.  Mr.  Choate  combined  a  rare  subtilty  of 
observation  and  ingenuity  of  argument,  gilded  by 
an  affluent  imagination  found  nowhere  else  but-  in 
the  fields  of  romance,  with  a  clear  and  incisive  logic 
which  charmed  alike  the  rustic  and  the  student,  and 
compelled  the  assent  of  the  critic  and  the  judge. 


THE  LAWYER.  \j 

If  it  be  admitted  that  Mr.  Choate  has  left  no 
single  passage  that  can  be  quoted  by  the  side  of  the 
choice  extracts  from  ancient  and  modern  orations, 
it  may  nevertheless  be  claimed  for  him  that  his  ar 
guments  and  speeches  are  well  sustained  from  first 
to  last,  and  that  the  marks  of  rewriting  and  prun 
ing  are  nowhere  to  be  found.  Such  were  his  in 
tellectual  resources  and  such  his  mastery  over  his 
faculties  that  what  he  wrought  was  finished  as  he 
wrought. 

Therefore,  whatever  selections  we  may  make 
from  the  speeches  and  orations  of  his  maturer 
years  will  express  his  quality  and  power,  remem 
bering  always  that  the  effect  of  his  personal  ap 
pearance,  gestures,  and  electrical  voice  can  never 
be  comprehended  by  those  who  had  not  the  for 
tune  to  see  and  to  hear  him. 

In  the-Gonvention  of  1853  a  vigorous  effort  was 


made  to  change  the  tenure  of  the  judicial  office 
from  a  tenure  of  "good  behavior"  to  a  term  of 
years.  This  change  Mr.  Choate  resisted,  and  the 
speech  he  then  delivered  presents  him  at  his  best 
in  the  field  of  statesmanship. 

His  purpose  he  thus  sets  forth: 

"  I  go  for  that  system,  if  I  can  find  it  or  help  to 
find  it,  which  gives  me  the  highest  degree  of  assur 
ance,  taking  man  as  he  is,  at  his  strongest  and  at 
his  weakest,  and  in  the  average  of  the  lot  of  hu- 


1  8  RUFUS  CHOATE 

manity,  that  there  shall  be  the  best  judge  on  every 
bench  of  justice  in  the  Commonwealth,  through  its 
successive  generations." 

In  a  speech  of  two  hours'  duration  he  dealt 
with  the  problem  how  to  command  and  how  to 
keep  upon  the  bench  such  a  judge  as  he  thus  de 
scribed  : 


the  first  place,  he  should  be  profoundly 
learned  in  all  the  learning  of  the  law,  and  he  must 
know  how  to  use  that  learning.  Will  any  one  stand 
up  here  to  deny  this  ?  In  this  day,  boastful,  glori 
ous  for  its  advancing,  popular,  professional,  scien 
tific,  and  all  education,  will  any  one  disgrace  himself 
by  doubting  the  necessity  of  deep  and  continued 
studies,  and  various  and  thorough  attainments  to 
the  bench  ?  He  is  to  know  not  merely  the  law  which 
you  make,  and  the  Legislature  makes,  not  constitu 
tional  and  statute  law  alone,  but  that  other  ampler, 
that  boundless  jurisprudence,  the  common  law, 
which  the  successive  generations  of  the  State  have 
silently  built  up  ;  that  old  code  of  freedom  which 
we  brought  with  us  in  the  Mayflower  and  Ara 
bella,  but  which,  in  the  progress  of  centuries,  we 
have  ameliorated  and  enriched,  and  adapted  wisely 
to  the  necessities  of  a  busy,  prosperous,  and  wealthy 
community  —  that  he  must  knoy. 

"  And  where  to  find  it  ?  In  volumes  which  you 
must  count  by  hundreds,  by  thousands  ;  filling 
libraries;  exacting  long  labors  —  the  labors  of  a 
lifetime,  abstracted  from  business,  from  politics  ; 


THE  LAWYER.  19 

but  assisted  by  taking  part  in  an  active  judicial 
administration  ;  such  labors  as  produced  the  wis 
dom  and  won  the  fame  of  Parsons,  and  Marshall, 
and  Kent,  and  Story,  and  Holt,  and  Mansfield.  II 
your  system  of  appointment  and  tenure  does  not 
present  a  motive,  a  help  for  such  labors  and  such 
learning-,  if  it  discourages,  if  it  disparages  them,  in 
so  far  it  is  a  failure. 

"  In  the  next  place,  he  must  be  a  man  not 
merely  upright ;  not  merely  honest  and  well-inten 
tioned — this  of  course — but  a  man  who  will  not 
respect  persons  in  judgment.  And  does  not  every 
one  here  agree  to  this  also  ?  Dismissing  for  a  mo 
ment  all  theories  about  the  mode  of  appointing 
him,  or  the  time  for  which  he  shall  hold  office,  sure 
I  am  we  all  demand  that,  as  far  as  human  virtue, 
assisted  by  the  best  contrivances  of  human  wis 
dom,  can  attain  to  it,  he  shall  not  respect  persons  in 
judgment.  He  shall  know  nothing  about  the  par 
ties,  everything  about  the  case.  He  shall  do  every 
thing  for  justice,  nothing  for  himself ;  nothing  for 
his  friend,  nothing  for  his  patrons,  nothing  for  his 
sovereign. 

"  If,  on  one  side,  is  the  executive  power  and  the 
Legislature  and  the  people — the  sources  of  his  hon 
ors,  the  givers  of  his  daily  bread — and  on  the  other 
an  individual,  nameless  and  odious,  his  eye  is  to  see 
neither  great  nor  small,  attending  only  to  the  trepi 
dations  of  the  balance.  If  a  law  is  passed  by  a 
unanimous  Legislature,  clamored  for  by  the  general 
voice  of  the  public,  and  a  cause  is  before  him  on  it, 
in  which  the  whole  community  is  on  one  side  and 


20  RUFUS   C HO  ATE 

an  individual  nameless  or  odious  on  the  other,  and 
he  believes  it  to  be  against  the  Constitution,  he 
must  so  declare  it,  or  there  is  no  judge.  If  Athens 
comes  there  to  demand  that  the  cup  of  hemlock  be 
put  to  the  lips  of  the  wisest  of  men,  and  he  believes 
that  he  has  not  corrupted  tlic  youtJi,  nor  omitted  to  wor 
ship  the  gods  of  the  city,  nor  introduced  new  divinities 
of  his  own,  he  must  deliver  him,  although  the  thun 
der  light  on  the  unterrined  brow. 

"  And,  finally,  he  must  possess  the  perfect  confi 
dence  of  the  community,  that  he  bear  not  the  swrord 
in  vain.  To  be  honest,  to  be  no  respecter  of  per 
sons,  is  not  yet  enough.  He  must  be  believed 
such.  1  should  be  glad  so  far  to  indulge  an  old- 
fashioned  and  cherished  professional  sentiment  as 
to  say  that  I  would  have  something  venerable  and 
illustrious  attach  to  his  character  and  function,  in 
the  judgment  and  feelings  of  the  Commonwealth. 

"  But  if  this  should  be  thought  a  little  above  or 
behind  the  time,  I  do  not  fear  that  I  subject  myself 
to  the  ridicule  of  any  one  when  I  claim  that  he  be 
a  man  toward  whom  the  love  and  trust  and  affection 
ate  admiration  of  the  people  should  flow  ;  not  a  man 
perching  for  a  winter  and  summer  in  our  court 
houses  and  then  gone  forever ;  but  one  to  whose 
benevolent  face,  and  bland  and  dignified  manners, 
and  firm  administration  of  the  whole  learning  of 
the  law,  we  become  accustomed  ;  whom  our  eyes 
anxiously,  not  in  vain,  explore  when  we  enter  the 
temple  of  justice  ;  toward  whom  our  attachment 
and  trust  grow  ever  with  the  growth  of  his  own 
reputation :  I  would  have  him  one  who  might  look 


LAWYER.  21 

back  from  the  venerable  last  years  of  Mansfield  or 
Marshall  and  recall  such  testimonies  as  these  to  the 
great  and  good  judge  : 

"  '  The  young  men  saw  me  and  hid  themselves,  and  the  r.ged 
arose  and  stood  up. 

"  '  The  princes  refrained  from  talking,  and  laid  their  hand 
upon  their  mouth. 

"  '  When  the  ear  heard  me,  then  it  blessed  me,  and  when  the 
eye  saw  me,  it  gave  witness  to  me. 

"  '  Because  I  delivered  the  poor  that  cried,  and  the  fatherless, 
and  him  that  had  none  to  help  him. 

"  '  The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon 
me,  and  I  caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy. 

"  '  I  put  on  righteousness,  and  it  clothed  me.  My  judgment 
was  as  a  robe  and  a  diadem.  I  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  feet 
was  I  to  the  lame. 

"  •  I  was  a  father  to  the  poor,  and  the  cause  which  I  knew  not 
I  searched  out. 

"  '  And  I  brake  the  jaws  of  the  wicked,  and  I  plucked  the 
spoil  out  of  his  teeth.' 

"  Give  to  the  community  such  a  judge,  and 
I  care  little  who  makes  the  rest  of  the  Constitution, 
or  what  party  administers  it.  It  will  be  a  free  gov 
ernment  I  know.  Let  us  repose  secure  under  the 
shade  of  a  learned,  impartial,  and  trusted  magis 
tracy,  and  we  need  no  more." 

There  may  be  paragraphs  in  oratory,  both  an 
cient  and  modern,  either  more  concise  in  expres 
sion,  or  more  elevated  in  character,  or  more  sublime 
in  the  precepts  taught,  or  more  brilliant  in  imagery, 
but  in  case  and  ingenuity  of  argument,  in  aptness 


22  RUFUS  CHOATE 

of  illustration,  in  fertility  of  language  and  beauty 
of  diction  combined,  these  passages  may  well  chal 
lenge  comparison  with  the  best  selections  from  ar 
gumentative  orations. 

Nor  let  it  be  forgotten  that,  for  more  than  a 
third  of  a  century,  in  a  professional  practice  which 
was  vast  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  Mr.  Choate 
exhibited  constantly  like  qualities  and  powers. 

A  lay-member  of  the  convention  assigned  as  a 
reason  for  favoring  an  elective  judiciary  that,  in 
some  cases,  as  he  alleged,  erroneous  decisions  had 
been  pronounced  from  the  bench.  Mr.  Choate 
thus  dealt  with  the  objection,  and  thus  closed  his 
speech  : 

"  I  have  lost  a  good  many  cases,  first  and  last,  and 
I  hope  to  try  and  expect  to  lose  a  good  many  more  ; 
but  I  never  heard  a  client  in  my  life,  however  dis 
satisfied  with  the  verdict  or  the  charge,  say  a  word 
about  changing  the  tenure  of  the  judicial  office.  I 
greatly  doubt  if  I  have  heard  as  many  as  three 
express  themselves  dissatisfied  with  the  judge ; 
though,  times  without  number,  they  have  regret 
ted  that  he  found  himself  compelled  to  go  against 
them.  My  own  tenure  I  have  often  thought  in 
danger ;  but  I  am  yet  to  see  the  first  client  who 
thought  of  meddling  with  that  of  the  court.  What 
is  true  of  those  clients  is  true  of  the  whole  people 
of  Massachusetts.  Sir,  that  people  have  two  traits 
of  character — just  as  our  political  system,  in  which 


THE  LAWYER. 


that  character  is  shown  forth,  has  two  great  ends. 
They  love  liberty  ;  that  is  one  trait.  They  love  it, 
and  they  possess  it  to  their  hearts'  content.  Free 
as  storms  to-day  do  they  know  it  and  feel  it,  every 
one  of  them,  from  the  sea  to  the  Green  Mountains. 
But  there  is  another  side  to  their  character,  and 
that  is  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  instinct  of  property  ; 
the  rational  and  the  creditable  desire  to  be  secure 
in  life,  in  reputation,  in  the  earnings  of  daily  labor, 
in  the  little  all  which  makes  up  the  treasures  and  the 
dear  chanties  of  the  humblest  home,  the  desire  to 
feel  certain  that  when  they  come  to  die  the  last  will 
shall  be  kept,  the  smallest  legacy  of  affection  shall 
reach  its  object,  although  the  giver  is  in  his  grave ; 
this  desire,  and  the  sound  sense  to  know  that  a 
learned,  impartial,  and  honored  judiciary  is  the  only 
means  of  having  it  indulged.  They  have  nothing 
timorous  in  them,  as  touching  the  largest  liberty. 
They  rather  like  the  exhilaration  of  crowding  sail  on 
the  noble  old  ship,  and  giving  her  to  scud  away  be 
fore  a  fourteen-knot  breeze  ;  but  they  know,  too, 
that  if  the  storm  comes  on  to  blow,  and  the  masts 
go  overboard,  and  the  gun-deck  is  rolled  under 
water,  and  the  lee-shore,  edged  with  foam,.thunders 
under  her  stern,  that  the  sheet-anchor  and  best 
bower  then  are  everything !  Give  them  good 
ground-tackle,  and  they  will  carry  her  round  the 
world  and  back  again,  till  there  shall  be  no  more 
sea." 

In  this  extract  there  is  an  exuberance  of  illus 
tration  which  passes  the  limits  set  by  critics  and 


24  RUFUS  CHOATE 

careful  writers,  yet  it  was  not  only  tolerated,  it  was 
applauded  by  the  ablest  body  of  men  ever  assem 
bled  in  Massachusetts. 

But,  whatever  may  be  the  estimate  of  Mr. 
Choate's  career  in  the  field  of  politics  and  states 
manship,  it  was  his  ambition  to  rule  the  twelve 
men  upon  the  panel,  and  his  triumphs  were  won  at 
the  bar.  His  vocation  was  the  law ;  politics  and 
statesmanship  were  avocations  to  which  he  turned 
temporarily  for  relaxation,  or  under  a  sense  of  duty 
to  the  public.  To  these,  however,  he  never  gave 
his  mind  continuously  and  without  reserve,  nor 
lent  his  powers  in  all  their  fullness. 

Of  the  objects  of  human  ambition,  the  pur 
pose  to  rule  the  twelve  men  upon  the  panel 
may  not  be  the  highest,  but  it  is  an  honorable 
object,  and  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Choate  it  was  the 
object  to  which  his  talents  and  genius  were  best 
adapted. 

The  highest  secular  pursuit  is  statesmanship — 
the  government  of  a  country.  Those  who  frame 
constitutions  and  make  laws  are  of  the  higher  de 
partment  ;  those  who  interpret  and  administer  the 
laws,  both  constitutional  and  statute  laws,  are  in 
the  second  department,  but  each  department  is 
equally  important  to  the  public  welfare.  The 
ability  to  frame  constitutions  and  to  enact  laws 
implies  the  capacity  to  discern  legal  distinctions, 


.  THE  LAWYER.  2$ 

and  the  learning  and  skill  to  protect  rights  and  to 
remedy  wrongs  by  systematic  agencies. 

It  is  the  object  of  governments  to  regulate  the 
relations  of  men  to  men,  and  of  men  to  things,  upon 
ethical  principles  capable  of  general  application. 
The  study  of  those  principles  and  of  their  applica 
tion  in  different  countries  and  in  different  ages  is 
the  work  of  the  lawyer  and  the  necessity  of  the 
statesman.  Hence  it  is  that  in  every  country  the 
rule  of  the  lawyer  begins  where  and  when  the  rule 
of  the  soldier  ends  —  not  the  rule  of  the  profes 
sional  lawyer  exclusively,  but  of  such  as  have 
legal  perceptions  and  that  training  which  enables 
them  to  apply  legal  principles  in  public  affairs.  In 
all  governments  the  end  sought  is  dictated  by  the 
ruling  force,  whether  the  body  of  the  people,  as  in 
some  countries,  or  the  hereditary  dynasty,  as  in 
others. 

In  English-speaking  countries,  the  statesman 
devises  the  laws,  the  judge  interprets  them,  and  the 
jury  applies  them  in  all  courts  of  law,  and  not  in 
frequently  in  courts  of  equity.  Thus,  finally,  the 
protection  of  the  rights  of  liberty,  property,  and 
reputation  is  confided  to  the  twelve  men  upon  the* 
panel.  Hence  the  wisdom  of  the  observation  made 
by  Brougham  that  "  all  we  see  about  us,  kings, 
lords,  and  commons,  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
state,  all  the  apparatus  of  the  system  and  its  various 


26  JRUFUS  C HO  ATE 

workings,  end  in  simply  bringing  twelve  good  men 
into  a  box. "*  But  how  are  the  twelve  good  men 
to  find  the  truth  ?  The  judge  knows  nothing  of  the 
case  ;  the  jury  know  nothing  of  the  case.  The 
attorneys  and  advocates  are  the  eyes  and  ears  of 
the  court — the  agencies  that  develop  the  facts  in 
the  presence  of  judge  and  jury,  and  thus  enable 
the  judge  to  apply  the  law,  and  the  jury  to  find 
the  facts. 

If  deprived  of  the  agency  and  aid  of  attorneys, 
the  courts  of  justice  would  soon  lose  their  value. 
By  jury-trials,  the  rights  of  men  are  decided,  and, 
as  a  verdict  is  not  a  precedent,  the  evils  result 
ing  from  error  are  limited  to  the  case  at  bar.  The 
rule  of  the  twelve  is  a  limited  rule ;  but  the  decis 
ions  of  the  twelve,  when  massed  and  considered 
together,  touch  and  control  nearly  all  the  contro 
verted  questions  of  society. 

In  this  view  of  the  importance  of  jury-trials,  it 
was  not  a  low  ambition,  nor  an  unworthy  purpose, 
which  led  Mr.  Choate  to  select  that  forum  for  the 
development  and  exhibition  of  his  powers,  talents, 
and  genius. 

The  questions  submitted  to  a  jury  are  often 
questions  of  magnitude,  in  a  public  sense,  and  they 
are  always  questions  of  present  and  pressing  im- 


*  "  Present  State  of  the  Law,"  February  7,  1828. 


THE  LAWYER.  2/ 

portance  to  the  parties  concerned.  In  the  inves 
tigations  incident  to  and  necessary  in  the  trial  of 
causes,  not  only  is  a  knowledge  of  the  law  required, 
but  a  knowledge  also  of  the  arts,  industries,  and 
sciences  of  the  world  is  essential  to  the  advocate. 
Beyond  these  qualifications  even,  there  is  a  field  for 
the  use — I  do  not  say  display — but  a  field  for  the 
use  of  every  variety  of  learning  that  can  be  gath 
ered  by  the  most  diligent  student.  In  all  these  ac 
quisitions,  Mr.  Choate  was  the  best-equipped  advo 
cate  ever  known  by  the  American  bar. 

For  half  a  century  he  pursued  his  studies,  spe 
cial  and  general,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  by 
day  and  by  night,  denying  himself  pleasures,  amuse 
ments,  relaxations  even,  dividing  his  time  between 
his  library  and  the  court-room. 

The  Bible  was  a  book  of  constant  study,  and 
his  devotion  to  the  New  Testament  in  Greek  led 
Mr.  Webster  to  say,  as  he  examined  the  books  upon 
the  shelves  of  Mr.  Choate's  library,  "  Thirteen  edi 
tions  of  the  Greek  Testament,  and  not  one  copy  of 
the  Constitution  of  your  country  !  "  He  translated 
the  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  studied  French  law 
and  history  in  the  language,  and  in  English  he  read 
everything  from  the  Black-Letter  to  Dickens.  The 
four  great  men  of  England,  in  his  estimation  and  in 
their  order,  were  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  Milton,  and 
Burke.  Indulging  in  exaggeration,  he  wrote  to 


28  RUFUS  CHOATE 

Sumner,  "  Out  of  Burke  might  be  cut  fifty  Mack 
intoshes,  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  Macaulays, 
forty  Jeffreys,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  Sir  Robert 
Peels,  and  leave  him  greater  than  Pitt  and  Fox  to 
gether.". 

With  a  mind  so  given  to  exaggeration,  it  is 
difficult  to  realize  that  he  was  a  close  —  not  a 
concise,  but  a  close — logical  reasoner,  whose  ar 
guments,  whether  to  court  or  jury,  were  seldom 
overloaded  or  embarrassed  by  imagery  or  illus 
trations. 

Logic  is  the  one  quality,  the  one  power,  abso 
lutely  essential  to  the  advocate.  Without  this  there 
can  be  no  success.  There  are  advocates,  however, 
usually  men  of  an  inferior  sort,  but  sometimes  they 
are  men  at  once  able  and  disingenuous,  whose  ar 
guments  are  logical  in  the  parts  but  illogical  in 
their  combinations.  Mr.  Choate's  arguments  were 
logical  in  the  parts  and  logical  in  the  whole.  His 
competitors  in  the  field  of  logic  were  Mason,  Web 
ster,  and  Curtis,  and  he  was  the  equal  of  either  of 
them  in  the  propriety  and  scientific  arrangement 
of  his  arguments,  though  not  in  the  power  of  state 
ment  ;  but  in  learning,  in  genius,  in  the  capacity  to 
weave  and  unweave  the  webs  of  human  testimony, 
he  was  superior  to  either  of  these  men,  as  he  was  to 
all  the  lawyers  of  America  of  the  generations  to 
which  they  belonged. 


THE  LAWYER. 


29 


In  addressing  a  court  upon  questions  of  law,  or 
even  upon  mixed  questions  of  law  and  fact,  it  is 
both  wise  and  safe  to  limit  the  discussion  to  pivotal 
propositions — those  propositions  on  which  the  case 
must  be  decided.  In  this  faculty,  Judge  Curtis 
excelled  ;  but  so  predominant  was  this  quality  in 
him  as  to  impair  essentially  his  standing  as  a  jury- 
lawyer.  In  Mr.  Webster,  the  logical  power,  the 
power  of  statement,  wealth  of  imagination,  and  pu 
rity  and  splendor  of  diction,  were  so  combined  as 
to  render  him  equally  formidable  before  the  court 
and  to  the  jury.  But  Mr.  Choate  excelled  Mr. 
Webster  in  the  variety  and  extent  of  his  learning, 
in  the  facility  and  genius  that  he  displayed  in  the 
cross-examination  of  witnesses  —  a  field  in  which 
causes  are  sometimes  .won,  but  more  frequently 
lost — in  his  resources  of  argument,  often  designed 
to  meet  the  peculiarities  of  individual  jurors,  and 
in  his  ability  to  repeat  a  thought  with  new  illustra 
tions,  and  in  a  diction  at  once  fresh  and  attrac 
tive. 

Much  may  be  assumed  of  a  court,  but  of  a  jury 
it  can  not  be  assumed  that  secondary  considera 
tions  may  not  have  great  weight,  and  therefore  the 
skillful  advocate  will  sometimes  dwell  upon  insig 
nificant  topics,  and  in  different  forms  present  his 
views  to  the  various  men  upon  the  panel.  In  all 
these  things  Mr.  Choate  was  unsurpassed,  and  yet 


30  RUFUS  CHOATE 

so  great  were  his  powers  that  his  arguments  were 
never  tedious,  even  to  those  who  thought  further 
discussion  unnecessary. 

It  is  the  misfortune  of  many  men  of  large  read 
ing,  that,  in  the  use  of  the  knowledge  thus  acquired, 
they  show  their  dependence  upon  notes  and  com 
monplace-books — those  aids  to  inferior  intellects 
and  hindrances  to  growth  in  the  young.  What 
Mr.  Choate  read  he  assimilated  to  himself,  so  that 
in  its  use  there  were  no  betrayals  of  the  sources. 
His  quotations  were  not  many,  and  generally  they 
were  brief  and  so  apt  that  their  omission  seemed 
impossible.  When  commonplace-books  are  dis 
carded  by  the  student,  he  will  then  become  self-re 
liant,  and  read  with  the  purpose  of  holding  in  his 
memory  whatever  may  be  worth  possessing. 

Mr.  Choate  seemed  never  to  forget  anything, 
and  his  practice  of  writing  his  arguments  served 
to  fix  in  his  memory  what  he  wrote,  or  to  aid  him 
in  reproducing  it.  But  this  habit  must  have  been 
due  to  a  purpose,  inasmuch  as  his  power  as  an  ex 
tempore  speaker  was  not  only  adequate  to  all  the 
exigencies  of  professional  life,  but  no  distinction 
could  be  made  between  his  written  and  his  unwrit 
ten  arguments. 

J&t  the  end  the  test  of  greatness  is  success.  A 
sii%le  triumph  is  not  success  either  in  the  field  or 
the  forum;  but  a  series  of  victories  due  always  to 


THE  LAWYER.  31 

plan,  courage,  and  brilliancy  of  execution  place 
the  actor  above  the  region  of  criticism  as  to 
the  presence  of  extraordinary  powers.  Traits  of 
weakness  there  may  be,  errors  there  may  be, 
deficiencies  there  may  be,  but  the  whole  must  be 
accepted  as  a  form  of  greatness  that  neither  ene 
mies  nor  critics  can  disturb. 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  Mr. 
Choate  was  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  most 
important  causes  pending  in  the  tribunals  of  the 
country,  and  of  every  form  known  to  our  system 
of  jurisprudence,  and  always  he  was  equal  to  the 
cause  and  to  the  opposing  advocate.  Of  the  great 
lawyers  of  this  country,  after  Mr.  Webster,  whose 
greatness  as  a  lawyer  was  an  inherent  quality  of 
his  greatness  as  a  man,  Mr.  Pinckney  and  Mr. 
Wirt  would  be  first  named.  In  a  comparison  of 
the  three,  it  is  to  be  said  that  Mr.  Choate  had  all 
the  logical  power  required  by  the  case,  and  that  in 
learning,  in  resources  and  ingenuity  of  argument, 
in  exuberance  of  diction,  in  aptness  and  splendor  of 
illustration,  neither  Pinckney  nor  Wirt  can  be  com 
pared  with  Chpa^T 

There  is  a  quality  of  poetry,  and  it  is  neither 
the  measure  nor  the  rhythm,  that  not  only  adorns 
prose  arguments,  but  enlightens  the  understand 
ings  of  those  who  listen  and  those  who  read.  The 
speech  of  Antony  over  the  body  of  Cresar  may  be 


32  RUFUS  CHOATE 

so  condensed  as  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  the 
logic  and  destroy  the  effect. 

In  comparing-  the  printed  speeches  of  Wirt  and 
Pinckney  with  the  printed  speeches  of  Choate, 
some  allowance  ought  to  be  made  in  favor  of  the 
first  two,  although  it  is  probable  that  Wirt  himself 
reported  his  argument  in  the  case  of  Gibbons  and 
Ogden,  and  Pinckney  may  have  done  the  same 
in  the  case  of  Hodges.  Mr.  Choate  was  a  rapid 
speaker,  and  the  reporters  were  not  always  able  to 
follow  him.  Of  the  report  of  his  argument  in  the 
Dalton  case  he  said,  "  Not  verbally,  not  verbally, 
but  the  general  nonsense  of  the  thing  they  have 
got." 

Of  English  advocates  neither  Erskine  nor  Cur- 
ran  nor  North,  who  most  resembled  Choate  in  style, 
can  be  compared  with  him  in  learning,  whether  in 
the  law  or  in  general  literature  ;  and  the  testimony 
of  the  printed  speeches  is  that  he  excelled  them  all 
in  grace  of  diction,  in  ingenuity  of  argument,  and 
in  the  capacity  to  command  the  aid  of  the  better 
sentiments  of  the  mind  and  the  more  elevating 
passions  of  the  human  heart  without  awakening 
suspicion  or  arousing  opposition  by  a  statement 
of  the  end  sought,  or  by  a  suggestion  of  the  pur 
pose  in  view.  If  Brougham's  superior  learning  be 
admitted,  and  in  the  law  and  general  literature  it  is 
not  easy  to  imagine  such  superiority,  the  fact  re- 


THE  LAWYER.  33 

mains  that,  in  ease  of  composition,  in  the  resources 
of  argument,  in  imagination,  and  in  diction,  he  was 
far  inferior  to  Choate. 

In  a  letter  to  Zachary  Macaulay,  in  which  he 
gave  advice  for  the  education  ot  the  son,  afterward 
Lord  Macaulay,  Brougham  says  that  he  wrote 
the  peroration  of  his  defense  of  Queen  Caroline 
nineteen  times  before  its  delivery.  Of  Choate 
nothing  of  the  sort  was  true.  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  transfixing  passing  thoughts  and  fugitive  sen 
tences  by  writing,  and  for  this  purpose  he  often 
left  his  bed  in  the  night.  Such  passages  may  have 
been  rewritten  in  his  speeches  and  arguments,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  beyond  this  he 
subjected  himself  to  the  labor  of  revising  and  re 
writing. 

Many  years  since  I  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Boston  Scientific  Club,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Thomas 
G.  Carey.  Mr.  Carey  was  a  gentleman  of  wealth 
and  taste,  and  his  rooms  were  adorned  with  paint 
ings  and  works  of  art  in  which  he  was  a  connois 
seur.  The  evening  was  given  to  an  essay  upon 
paintings,  by  Mr.  Carey.  Of  that  essay  I  have 
preserved  one  thought  only — that  the  finest  paint 
ings  are  produced  by  the  smallest  outlay  of  pig 
ment  and  the  fewest  strokes  of  the  brush.  And  it 
is  true  that  the  absolutely  great  things  in  art,  in 
war,  and  in  literature,  are  the  products  of  abso- 


34 


RUFUS  CHOATE 


lutely  great  men  and  by  the  ordinary  movements 
of  great  minds. 

It  is  impossible  to  associate  the  thought  of 
study,  or  of  what  we  call  intellectual  effort,  with 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  writings  of  Shakespeare  show  no  marks  of 
paring  and  cutting,  of  reconstruction  and  rewrit 
ing.  It  is  otherwise,  however,  with  Bacon,  Milton, 
Addison,  Johnson,  Byron,  and  Brougham. 

Of  Choate's  many  arguments,  only  a  few  are 
preserved,  but  they  were  prepared  at  the  moment 
and  under  the  pressure  of  business.  In  great 
causes  he  had  many  days,  and  not  infrequently 
weeks,  for  thought,  but  his  time  was  occupied  ne 
cessarily  in  the  trial  itself,  leaving  only  spare  mo 
ments  and  the  night  for  the  work  of  preparation. 

Mr.  Choate's  powers  and  resources  are  best  dis 
played  in  the  report  of  the  Dalton  trial.  This  was 
a  libel  for  divorce  by  Frank  Dalton  against  his 
wife,  Helen  Maria  Dalton,  born  Gove". 

Mrs.  Dalton  was  the  daughter  of  a  retired 
merchant,  and  was  married  to  Dalton  in  the  year 
1855,  and  at  the  age  of  about  eighteen  years.  Soon 
after  her  marriage  she  became  intimate  with  a 
young  man  named  Sumner,  which  led  finally  to  a 
confession  on  her  part,  but  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
be  open  to  two  interpretations.  It  led,  however,  to 
an  attack  upon  Sumner  by  Dalton,  which  was  fol- 


THE  LAWYER.  35 

lowed  by  the  death  of  Sumner,  the  arrest  and  im 
prisonment  of  Dalton  for  manslaughter,  and  his 
conviction  finally  of  a  simple  assault.  Until  about 
the  time  of  Dalton's  release  from  prison,  he  ac 
cepted  his  wife's  statement  as  an  admission  of 
frivolity  and  indiscretion,  of  which  she  had  re 
pented  bitterly  ;  but  his  associations  or  reflections, 
or  both  together,  wrought  an  entire  change  in  his 
feelings  and  opinions,  and  he  came  finally  to  regard 
his  wife's  confession  as  an  admission  of  guilt.  At 
the  trial,  two  persons,  who  were  present  at  the 
confession,  so  represented  the  interview  between 
Dalton  and  his  wife.  The  cross-examination  of 
these  witnesses  by  Mr.  Durant,  and  the  argument 
of  Mr.  Choate,  destroyed  their  testimony  utterly^, 

Never  in  any  cause  were  the  genius  and  nobil 
ity  of  an  advocate  more  conspicuous  than  in  Mr. 
Choate  in  that  contest.  /Tie  did  not  aim  merely  to 
satisfy  the  twelve  men  upon  the  panel  that  Mrs. 
Dalton  was  innocent,  but  it  was  his  higher  pur 
pose  to  satisfy  Dalton  that  she  was  worthy  to 
be  his  wife,  and  it  has  been  said  that  this  pur 
pose  he  accomplished  —  and  all  against  heavy 
odds. 

There  were  two  swift  witnesses,  one  of  them 
the  brother-in-law  of  Dalton,  to  report  the  con 
fession  ;  and  a  wet-nurse,  to  testify  to  an  attempt 
on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Dalton  to  destroy  the  fruit  of 


36  RUFUS  CHOATE 

her  crime.  The  witnesses,  one  after  another,  were 
extinguished  literally,  and  Dalton  was  brought 
finally  to  accept  the  advocate's  view  of  the  case. 
Twice  in  the  exordium  of  his  argument  does  he 
declaim  against  the  folly  of  Mrs.  Dalton,  coupled 
with  a  denial  of  the  crime  charged  in  the  libel.  This 
is  the  refrain  of  his  discourse,  but  always  in  fresh 
language,  as  though  the  thought  itself  had  never 
before  been  used.  Thus  he  commences : 

"MR.  FOREMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN:  I  congratu 
late  you  on  approaching,  at  least,  the  close  of  this 
case,  so  severe  and  painful  to  all  of  us.  One  effort 
more  of  your  indulgence  I  have  to  ask,  and  then 
we  shall  retire  from  your  presence,  satisfied  and 
grateful  that  everything  which  candor  and  patience 
and  intelligence  can  do  for  these  afflicted  suitors 
has  been  done. 

"  It  very  rarely  indeed  happens,  gentlemen,  in 
the  trial  of  a  civil  controversy,  that  both  parties 
have  an  equal,  or  rather  a  vast  interest  that  one  of 
them — in  this  case  the  defendant — should  be  clearly 
proved  to  be  entitled  to  your  verdict.  Unusual  as 
it  is,  in  the  view  I  take  of  this  case,  such  a  one  is 
now  on  trial. 

"  To  both  of  these  parties  it  is  of  supreme  impor 
tance,  in  the  view  that  I  take  of  it,  that  you  should 
find  this  young  wife,  erring,  indiscreet,  imprudent, 
forgetful  of  herself,  if  it  be  so,  but  innocent  of  the 
last  and  the  greatest  crime  of  a  married  woman.  I 
say  to  both  parties  it  is  important.  I  cannot  deny,  of 


THE  LAWYER. 


37 


course,  gentlemen,  that  her  interest  in  such  a  result 
is  perhaps  the  greater  of  the  two.  For  her,  indeed, 
it  is  not  at  all  too  much  to  say  that  everything  is 
staked  upon  the  result.  I  can  not,  of  course,  hope, 
I  can  not  say,  that  any  verdict  which  you  can  ren 
der  in  this  case  can  give  her  back  again  the  happy 
and  sunny  life  which  seemed  opening  upon  her  two 
years  ago  ;  I  can  not  say  it,  because  I  do  not  think 
that  any  verdict  you  can  render  will  ever  enable 
her  to  recall  those  weeks  of  folly,  and  frivolity,  and 
vanity  without  a  blush,  without  a  tear  ;  I  can  not 
desire  that  it  should  be  so.  But,  gentlemen,  whether 
these  grave  and  impressive  proceedings  shall  ter 
minate  by  sending  this  young  wife  from  your  pres 
ence  with  the  scarlet  letter  upon  her  brow  ;  whether 
in  this,  her  morning  of  life,  her  name  shall  be  thus 
publicly  stricken  from  the  roll  of  virtuous  women, 
her  whole  future  darkened  by  dishonor  and  waylaid 
by  temptation  ;  her  companions  driven  from  her 
side  ;  herself  cast  out,  it  «nay  be,  upon  common  so 
ciety,  the  sport  of  libertines,  unassisted  by  public 
opinion,  or  sympathy,  or  self-respect — this  certainly 
rests  with  you.  For  her,  therefore,  I  am  surely 
warranted  in  saying  that  more  than  her  life  is  here 
at  stake.  Whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  what 
soever  things  are  of  good  report,  if  there  be  any 
virtue,  if  there  be  any  praise,  all  the  chances  that 
are  to  be  left  her  in  life,  for  winning  and  holding 
these  holy,  beautiful,  and  needful  things,  rest  with 
you.  .  .  .  But  is  there  not  another  person,  gentlemen, 
interested  in  these  proceedings,  with  an  equal  or 


3 8  RUFUS  CHOATE 

at  least  a  supreme  interest  with  the  respondent,  that 
you  shall  be  able  by  your  verdict  to  say  that  Helen 
Dalton  is  not  guilty  of  the  crime  of  adultery,  and  is 
not  that  person  her  husband  ?  I  do  not  say,  gentle 
men,  that  he  ought  to  feel  or  would  feel  grateful 
for  a  verdict  that  should  acquit  her  on  any  ground 
of  doubt  or  technicality,  leaving  everybody  to  sus 
pect  her  guilty  ;  I  do  not  say  that  he  would  feel 
contented  with  such  a  verdict  as  that,  though  I  say 
it  would  be  her  sacred  right  that  such  a  verdict 
should  be  rendered,  if  your  minds  were  left  in  that 
state.  He  must  acquiesce  whether  the  verdict  is 
satisfactory  to  him  in  that  particular  or  not.  But, 
gentlemen,  if  you  can  here  and  now,  on  this  evi 
dence,  acquit  your  consciences  and  render  a  verdict 
that  shall  assure  this  husband  that  a  jury  of  Suffolk, 
men  of  honor  and  spirit,  some  of  them  his  personal 
friends,  believe  that  he  has  been  the  victim  of  a 
cruel  and  groundless  jealousy ;  that  they  believe 
that  he  has  been  led  by  that  scandal  that  circulates 
about  him,  and  has  influenced  him  everywhere ; 
that  he  has  been  made  to  misconceive  the  nature 
and  overestimate  the  extent  of  the  injury  his  wife 
hac  dene  him ;  if  he  could  be  made  to  believe  and 
see,  as  I  believe  you  see  and  believe,  and  every 
other  human  being  sees  and  believes,  that  the  story 
by  which  he  has  been  induced  to  institute  these 
proceedings  is  falser  than  the  coinage  of  hell ;  if 
you  can  thus  enable  him  to  see  that,  without  dis 
honor,  he  may  again  take  her  to  his  bosom,  let  me 
ask  you  if  any  other  human  being  can  do  another 
so  great  a  kindness  as  this  ? " 


THE  LAWYER.  39 

And  thus  Mr.  Choate  went  on  through  two  full 
days,  analyzing  the  evidence,  crushing  the  adverse 
witnesses,  explaining  disagreeable  facts,  admitting 
and  condemning  the  conduct  of  his  client,  but  al 
ways  denying  the  extreme  guilt  charged,  and  all 
with  a  splendor  of  diction  and  ingenuity  of  argu 
ment  to  which  the  present  generation  of  the  habit- 
uts  of  court-houses  are  strangers. 

Never,  elsewhere,  not  even  in  works  of  ethics  or 
romance,  were  the  nature  and  evils  of  flirtation  so 
set  forth  and  at  once  condemned,  explained,  and,  in 
a  degree,  excused.  Near  the  close  of  the  argument, 
Mr.  Choate  said  : 

"  I  leave  her  case,  therefore,  upon  this  statement, 
and  respectfully  submit  that,  for  both  their  sakes, 
you  will  render  a  verdict  promptly  and  joyfully  in 
favor  of  Helen  Dalton — for  both  their  sakes.  There 
is  a  future  for  them  both  together,  I  think ;  but  if 
that  be  not  so — if  it  be  that  this  matter  has  pro 
ceeded  so  far  that  her  husband's  affections  have 
been  alienated,  and  that  a  happy  life  in  her-case  has 
become  impracticable,  yet,  for  all  that,  let' there  fee 
no  divorce.  For  no  levity,  no  vanity,  no  indiscre 
tion,  let  there  be  a  divorce.  ...  If  they  may  not  be 
dismissed  then,  gentlemen,  to  live  again  together, 
for  her  sake  and  her  parents',  sustain  her  ;  give  her 
back  to  self-respect  and  the  assistance  of  that  public 
opinion  which  all  of  us  require." 

He  closed  with  a  quotation  from  one  of  Mrs. 


\ 


40  RUFUS  C HO  ATE 

Dalton's  letters  to  her  husband :  "  Wishing  you 
much  happiness  and  peace,  with  much  love,  if  you 
will  accept  it,  I  remain  your  wife,"  and  added : 

"  So  may  she  remain  until  that  one  of  them  to 
whom  it  is  appointed  first  to  die,  shall  find  the  peace 
of  the  grave!  " 

As  the  Dalton  case  was  the  outcome  of  hu 
man  passions,  so  in  the  trial  there  were  constant 
appeals  to  the  sympathies  of  the  jury  and  the 
public. 

In  the  defense,  Mr.  Choate  was  not  merely  the 
advocate ;  his  nature  was  such  that  he  defended 
Mrs.  Dalton  as  though  she  had  been  his  daughter 
or  sister. 

But  let  it  not  be  imagined  that  his  success  lay 
in  the  nature  and  circumstances  of  the  cause.  He 
was  equally  great  upon  constitutional  questions,  in 
the  domain  of  the  common  law,  the  patent  law, 
and  in  admiralty. 

He  died  in  the  fullness  of  his  powers,  when  he 
was  less  than  sixty  years  of  age,  free  from  any 
stain  on  his  personal  character,  and  with  no  just 
imputation  on  his  professional  career.  Endowed 
as  he  was  by  nature  with  wonderful  powers  for 
labor,  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  gifted 
as  he  was  in  all  the  arts  of  oratory,  he  takes  rank 
with  the  ablest  advocates  who  have  honored  and 


THE  LAWYER.  4! 

illustrated  the  profession  of  the  law  in  modern 
times.  Most  men  in  the  profession  toil  for  a  liv 
ing,  or  for  money,  or  for  the  transitory  fame 
which  sometimes  attends  the  career  of  a  success 
ful  lawyer. 

Mr.  Choate  studied  law  as  a  science  and  prac 
ticed  it  as  an  art.  He  was  indifferent  to  money, 
indifferent  to  fame.  He  neglected  the  care  of  his 
arguments  and  speeches,  and  he  made  only  imper 
fect  and  desultory  records  of  his  services.  Until 
his  association  with  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Bell,  his 
income  was  only  sufficient  to  meet  his  modj 
expenditures  in  everything  except  booksj  In  1851 
I  called  at  his  house  in  the  evening  for  professional 
consultation,  and  with  me  went  a  country  lawyer 
who  was  not  accustomed  to  the  large  libraries  of 
modern  times.  We  were  taken  into  Mr.  Choate's 
library,  which  filled  two  rooms  in  the  second  story 
of  the  house.  The  partition  had  been  cut  away, 
and  thus  at  one  glance  we  could  see  the  extent  of 
the  library,  the  files  of  books  rising  to  the  ceiling, 
and  occupying  the  larger  part  of  the  floor.  Said 
my  associate,  in  amazement,  "  What  a  collection 
of  books  you  have,  Mr.  Choate !  " 

"  Yes — more  than  I  have  paid  for ;  but  that  is 
the  bookseller's  business,  not  mine."  This  was  an 
exhibition  of  his  habit  of  extravagance  in  state 
ment.  Let  us  not  infer  that  he  was  indifferent  to 


42  RUFUS  CHOATE 

his  pecuniary  obligations,  although  he  was  indiffer 
ent  to  money  as  a  possession. 

In  an  acquaintance  of  nearly  twenty  years,  I 
was  led  to  esteem  Mr.  Choate,  perhaps  to  admire 
him.  Long  ago  I  gave  a  half  promise  to  myself 
that  I  would  make  a  mark  upon  the  sands  of  time, 
though  slight  it  might  be,  as  a  tribute  to  his  genius. 
From  that  acquaintance  I  received  the  impression 
that  he  was  the  ablest  jury-lawyer  that  America 
had  then  seen.  Since  his  deatTi  I  have  had  other 
twenty  years  for  observation  and  reflection,  and 
I  announce  my  conclusion  in  one  half-sentence — 
that,  for  all  the  varied  exigencies  of  professional 
life,  Rufus  Choate  was  the  best-equipped  advocate 
who  ever  stood  in  a  judicial  forum  and  spoke  the 
English  language. 

All  this,  and  yet  Mr.  Choate's  greatness  was  not 
of  the  absolute.  It  was  a  greatness  achieved.  It 
bore  no  relation  to  the  supremacy  of  Shakespeare 
who  spurned  teachers  and  schools,  and  who  for 
nearly  three  centuries  has  controlled  art  in  litera 
ture  and  defied  criticism.  Mr.  Choate's  greatness 
had  only  a  remote  relation  to  that  of  Webster,  of 
whom  it  may  be  said  that  we  can  not  imagine  a 
condition  of  society  in  which  his  superiority  would 
not  have  been  recognized,  even  if  the  training  of 
the  schools  had  been  wanting. 

Mr.  Choate,  however,  is  a  conspicuous  example 


THE  LAWYER.  43 

of  the  influence  of  schools  and  culture  upon  a  man 
of  genius  endowed  with  the  virtue  of  industry  ; 
and  his  career  is  ah  earnest,  a  sufficient  protest 
against  the  opinion  that  the  schools  and  universi 
ties  should  not  teach  all  literature  as  well  as  all 
science,  and  in  that  literature  all  languages  in  which 
its  gems  are  found  or  which  contribute  to  the  lan 
guage  that  we  speak.  Not  everything  in  literature 
and  science  for  everybody ;  but  there  should  be 
somebody  for'  everything,  and,  that  there  may  be 
somebody  for  everything,  everything  should  be 
taught. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

IN  the  month  of  January,  1839,  I  rnade  my  first 
visit  to  the  city  of  Washington,  and  for  the  first 
time  I  then  saw  and  heard  Mr.  Webster.  He  had 
reached  the  summit  of  his  fame  as  an  orator, 
and  it  was  then  that  in  personal  appearance  he 
fully  justified  the  encomium  bestowed  upon  him 
by  his  friends  and  admirers  who  had  crowned  him 
"the  godlike  Daniel." 

I  heard  him  make  one  or  two  brief  common 
place  observations  in  the  Senate,  but  I  had  also 
the  privilege  of  hearing  his  argument  before  the 
Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  Smith  vs.  Richards, 
reported  in  volume  thirteen  of  Peters's  reports. 
His  opponent  was  Mr.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky. 

Mr.  Webster  appeared  for  the  appellant,  who 
had  appealed  from  the  decree  of  the  Circuit  Court 
for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York,  by  which 
a  contract  for  the  sale  of  a  gold-mine  in  Virginia 
had  been  annulled,  upon  the  ground  that  the  vend 
er  (Smith)  made  false  representations  at  the  time 
of  the  sale  in  regard  to  material  facts. 


THE  STATESMAN. 


45 


The  decree  of  the  Circuit  Court  was  affirmed 
by  the  Supreme  Court,  three  of  the  nine  judges 
— Story,  McLean,  and  Baldwin — dissenting.  Of 
these  nine  judges,  only  three — Taney,  Story,  and 
McLean — are  now  known,  even  to  the  profession. 
Yet  to  an  inexperienced  person  it  was  an  awe- 
inspiring  tribunal.  Nor  has  the  impression  then 
produced  upon  me  been  removed  by  time  and 
experience.  In  like  manner  the  court  will  estab 
lish  and  maintain  its  power  over  many  successive 
generations  of  American  citizens.  If  the  court 
shall  ever  be  in  peril,  its  peril  will  be  due  to  poli 
tics — to  the  disposition  of  its  members  either  to 
mingle  in  the  political  contests  of  the  time,  or  to 
seek  political  distinction  and  office.  Happily,  thus 
far  in  our  history,  the  small  number  of  judges  who 
have  attempted  to  step  from  the  bench  to  the  presi 
dency  have  been  disappointed. 

Speaking  only  of  the  past,  it  is  to  be  noted  as 
a  singular  circumstance  that  the  three  most  dis 
tinguished  judges  were  active  politicians  when 
they  were  appointed. 

Marshall,  Story,  and  Taney  were  pronounced 
partisans,  and  upon  political  questions  their  opin 
ions  as  judges,  were  shaped  or  modified  usually 
by  the  views  of  the  politician.  The  contrary 
could  not  have  been  anticipated.  It  would  not 
often  happen  that  a  Federalist  and  a  State-rights 


46  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

Democrat  would  agree  upon  questions  testing 
the  scope  of  the  powers  of  the  national  Gov 
ernment. 

It  is  the  boast  of  a  class  of  lawyers — not  a  nu 
merous  class — that  they  seldom  or  never  lose  a 
cause.  Such  has  not  been  the  experience  of  the 
greatest  nor  of  the  purest  of  the  profession.  And 
assuredly  such  was  not  Mr.  Webster's  experience. 
Without  claiming  that  I  have  made  a  complete 
examination  of  the  reports,  it  is  safe  to  assume 
that  Mr.  Webster  failed  in  one  half  of  the  causes 
that  he  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  period  of  his  largest  practice. 

With  the  increase  of  business,  and  with  the 
increase  of  the  instruments  and  agencies  for  the 
transaction  of  business,  new  questions  will  arise 
inevitably.  On  those  questions  differences  of  opin 
ion  must  exist. 

The  general  public  is  inclined  to  accept  the 
notion  that  an  attorney  is  inexcusable,  if  he  ad 
vises  a  suit  in  a  bad  cause,  and  that  an  advocate 
is  worthy  of  stripes  if  he  defends  a  wicked  client, 
or  appears  on  the  wrong  side  of  a  contested  case. 
In  presence  of  the  circumstance  that  there  are 
differences  of  opinion  in  courts,  sometimes  upon 
questions  of  pure  law,  sometimes  upon  the  admissi- 
bility  of  testimony,  and  sometimes  upon  the  value 
of  evidence,  it  is  not  strange  that  attorneys  and 


THE  STATESMAN.  4; 

advocates,  in  advance  of  the  trial  and  the  tests  of 
judicial  proceedings,  are  unable  to  estimate  with 
certainty  the  character  of  the  causes  that  they  are 
called  to  promote  or  to  defend. 

Again,  I  heard  Mr.  Webster  at  the  completion 
of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  June  17,  1843.  He 
was  then  in  his  sixty-second  year,  but  time  had 
not  made  any  impression  upon  his  vigorous  physi 
cal  organization,  and  his  oratorical  powers  were 
unimpaired.  '  He  spoke  to  an  audience  that 
stretched  far  beyond  the  power  of  any  merely 
human  voice.  It  was,  however,  an  audience  in 
full  sympathy  with  the  occasion  and  with  the 
speaker.  It  was  the  last  considerable  gathering  of 
the  survivors  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  They 
numbered  but  one  hundred  and  eight.  At  the 
dedication  of  the  Acton  Monument,  in  1851,  only 
two  of  that  number  survived  ;  and  at  the  reception 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  in  1859,  there  remained 
of  those  who  fought  at  Bunker  Hill  only  a  Mr. 
Farnham,  whose  life  had  been  extended  to  about 
one  hundred  years. 

Mr.  Webster  had  been  called  by  President 
Harrison  to  the  head  of  the  Cabinet  in  1841,  and 
he  continued  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Department  of  State  under  President  Tyler  until 
May,  1843. 

By  his  adherence  to  President  Tyler  he  alien- 


48  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

ated  his  followers  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  Septem 
ber,  1842,  the  Whig  State  Convention  declared  "a 
full  and  final  separation  "  between  the  Whig  party 
and  the  President.  Mr.  Webster  treated  this  ac 
tion  as  a  censure  of  himself.  In  that  he  did  not 
err ;  but  he  was  not  then  disposed  to  submit  to  the 
censure  without  answer,  nor  even  without  resist 
ance  and  threats  of  retaliation.  His  friends  called 
a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall.  The  meeting  was  held 
September  30.  The  mayor  of  the  city  presided. 
In  the  preceding  August  the  Ashburton  Treaty  had 
been  signed.  The  apprehensions  of  war  growing 
out  of  the  northeastern  boundary  controversy  were 
quieted,*  and  Mr.  Webster  had  thus  arrested  the 
adverse  drift  of  public  sentiment.  The  mayor,  in 
his  introductory  address,  said  that  Mr.  Webster 
might  "  be  left  to  take  care  of  his  own  honor  and 
reputation."  With  emphasis  Mr.  Webster  adopted 
the  remark,  and  then  proceeded  to  say  that,  as  he 
must  bear  the  consequences  of  the  decision,  he  had 
"  better  be  trusted  to  make  it."  He  asserted  his 
right  to  be  counted  as  a  Whig,  and  he  intimated 
that,  if  the  issue  were  pressed,  he  would  appeal  to 
the  State  of  Massachusetts.  His  opponents  were 
not  ready  for  an  appeal  to  the  State,  and  the  tend 
ency  of  public  sentiment  was  again  in  Mr.  Web 
ster's  favor.  He  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Cabinet  in 
May,  1843,  and  in  1845  he  was  again  elected  a 


THE  STATESMAN.  49 

member  of  the  Senate,  and  by  the  representatives 
of  the  Whig  party  that  had  denounced  him  in 
1842. 

At  the  time  of  his  election,  Mr.  Webster  had 
re-established  his  supremacy  over  the  Whig  party, 
although  the  division  between  "conscience  Whigs" 
and  "cotton  Whigs"  was  visible. 

The  differences  between  the  two  wings  of  the 
party  culminated  in  1848  in  the  secession  of  the 
anti-slavery  men,  who  supported  Van  Buren  and 
Adams  in  the  election  of  that  year. 

At  the  opening  of  the  January  session  of  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  for  the  year  1847, 
Fletcher  Webster,  the  eldest  of  Mr.  Webster's 
sons,  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
as  a  member  from  the  city  of  Boston. 

Caleb  Gushing  was  returned  from  the  town  of 
Newburyport.  Mr.  Gushing  had  been  a  Whig. 
He  was  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  time  of 
President  Tyler's  defection,  when  he  became  one 
of  the  Tyler  body-guard,  or  Omnibus  party,  as  the 
supporters  of  Tyler  in  the  national  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  were  called.  In  November,  1846, 
when  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  he  had 
only  recently  returned  from  China,  where,  as 
commissioner  appointed  by  President  Tyler,  he 
had  negotiated  an  important  treaty  with  that 
country. 


50  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

On  the  first  day  of  the  session  of  the  Legisla 
ture,  Mr.  Gushing  introduced  a  resolution  to  appro 
priate  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  aid  in  equipping 
a  regiment  for  the  war  in  Mexico.  The  regiment 
had  been  raised,  the  company -officers  had  been 
chosen,  and  Mr.  Gushing  had  either  been  appointed 
colonel,  or  there  was  a  general  impression  that  he 
was  to  have  the  command.  Money,  however,  was 
more  necessary  than  officers.  The  war  was  un 
popular  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  Whig  party, 
with  here  and  there  an  exception,  was  hostile  to 
the  appropriation. 

The  resolution  was  sent  to  a  special  committee, 
of  which  Mr.  Gushing  was  the  chairman,  and  of 
which  I  was  made  a  member.  According  to  the 
then  prevailing  custom,  the  committee  was  com 
posed,  in  the  majority,  of  friends  of  the  measure. 
Consequently,  the  resolution  was  reported,  with  a 
recommendation  in  its  favor. 

Mr.  Webster's  youngest  son,  Edward,  was  a 
captain  in  the  regiment.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  Fletcher  Webster  should  support  the  resolu 
tion.  It  was  understood,  also,  that  Mr.  Webster 
favored  the  appropriation.  In  the  discussion, 
Fletcher  Webster  made  one  remark  that  indi 
cated  the  presence  of  his  father's  blood.  In  urg 
ing  the  passage  of  the  resolution,  he  assured  his 
Yyhig  associates  that  they  would  be  required  to 


THE  STATESMAN.  51 

explain  their  votes  against  the  appropriation,  and 
he  then  said,  with  emphasis,  "  and  explanations  are 
always  disagreeable." 

Fletcher  Webster  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordi 
nary  ability,  but  he  was  weighted  by  his  father's 
pre-eminence,  and  he  realized,  whenever  he  spoke, 
that  comparisons  were  instituted  to  his  disadvan 
tage.  Again,  while  he  was  not  under  the  average 
of  men  in  height  and  weight,  he  felt  his  inferiority 
to  his  father  in  these  particulars  ;  and  he  once  said 
to  me  that  a  man  could  "come  to  but  little  unless 
he  was  of  good  size  and  appearance." 

The  acquaintance  I  thus  formed  with  Fletcher 
Webster  may  have  been  the  cause  of  some  kind 
nesses  which  Mr.  Webster  extended  to  me. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  Mr.  Webster  deliv 
ered  his  speech  of  the  ;th  of  March,  1850,  he  vis 
ited  Boston,  and  took  rooms  at  the  Revere  House. 
The  Legislature  was  then  in  session,  and  J.  Thomas 
Stevenson,  as  the  friend  of  Mr.  Webster,  gave  in 
formal  invitations  to  members  to  call  upon  Mr. 
Webster  on  an  evening  named. 

His  speech  of  the  ;th  of  March  had  alienated 
the  Whigs  generally,  and  a  small  number  only  vent 
ured  to  call  upon  their  old  chief.  The  Demo 
cratic  members  of  the  Legislature  were  free  from 
constraint.  I  called  with  others,  and  it  was  then 
that  I  was  introduced  to  him.  He  wore  the  dress 


52  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

known  as  his  court  dress.  Time  had  wrought 
great  changes  in  the  seven  preceding  years.  His 
form  was  erect,  his  hair  retained  its  dark  color, 
but  he  had  lost  flesh,  his  cheeks  were  sunken,  and 
the  black  circles  around  his  large  eyes  were  more 
distinct  than  they  had  been  in  1843.  The  marks 
of  physical  beauty  had  disappeared,  but  the  evi 
dences  of  majesty  of  person  and  greatness  of  intel 
lect  remained.  As  I  stood  before  him  I  estimated 
his  height,  which  was  then  less  than  five  feet  and 
eleven  inches.  His  speech  of  the  /th  of  March 
had  destroyed  his  hold  upon  the  Whig  party  of  the 
State,  and  it  had  destroyed  the  hold  of  the  Whig 
party  upon  the  State  itself. 

During  this  visit  Mr.  Webster's  friends  peti 
tioned  the  city  government  for  the  use  of  Faneuil 
Hall,  that  Mr.  Webster  might  explain  and  defend 
his  speech  of  the  7th  of  March. 

The  prayer  of  the  petition  was  rejected.  The 
city  government  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Whig 
party,  and  John  P.  Bigelow,  whose  sister  was  the 
wife  of  Abbott  Lawrence,  was  the  mayor.  The 
responsibility  for  the  indignity  was  laid  upon  Mr. 
Lawrence  and  the  wing  of  the  party  that  he  repre 
sented.  To  Mr.  Webster  Faneuil  Hall  was  conse 
crated  ground,  and  the  refusal  of  the  city  govern 
ment  to  open  its  doors  to  him  and  his  friends  was 
an  indignity  which  he  never  forgot  and  which  he 


THE  STATESMAN.  53 

never  forgave.  The  act  of  the  city  government 
was  not  only  unwise  —  it  was  an  act  for  which  there 
was  neither  defense  nor  excuse.  For  a  third  of  a 
century  Mr.  Webster  had  been  the  chief  person 
age  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  intellectual  power  he 
was  the  first  person  in  the  republic. 

He  had  defended  Massachusetts  in  her  history  ; 
he  had  again  and  again  vindicated  her  public 
policy ;  and  the  city  of  Boston  was  largely  indebted 
to  him  for  its  business  prosperity  and  for  its  emi 
nent  rank  and  influence  in  the  councils  of  the  na 
tion.  If  his  speech  had  been  much  more  offensive 
than  it  was,  the  city  which  he  had  represented  and 
honored,  and  to  which  he  was  deeply  attached, 
should  have  given  him  an  opportunity  to  explain 
and  defend  the  course  that  he  had  chosen  to  pursue. 

In  the  month  of  September,  1851,  railway  com 
munication  with  Canada  was  established,  and  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  and  the  city  of  Boston 
joined  in  celebrating  the  event. 

Mr.  Webster  was  then  Secretary  of  State  under 
President  Fillmore.  The  President  and  three  mem 
bers  of  his  Cabinet,  Webster,  Stuart,  and  Conrad, 
accepted  the  invitation  to  be  present.  Lord  Elgin, 
Governor-General  of  Canada ;  Sir  Francis  Hincks, 
Attorney  -  General ;  Mr.  Joseph  Howe,  of  Nova 
Scotia,  and  other  colonial  officials,  were  present. 
Mr.  Webster  arrived  in  Boston  several  days  in  ad- 


54  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

vance  of  the  President,  and  took  rooms  at  the 
Revere  House.  When  I  called  upon  him  he  said 
that  he  should  cheerfully  appear,  if  invited  to  do 
so,  whenever  the  State  appeared,  but  that  he  should 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  city.  He  also  said 
that  upon  the  arrival  of  the  President  it  would  be 
a  pleasure  to  him  to  introduce  the  members  of  the 
State  government. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  the  members 
of  the  State  government  went  to  the  Revere  House 
at  about  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  We  were 
met  by  Mr.  Stevenson,  who  informed  Mr.  Webster 
of  our  presence.  He  soon  appeared,  dressed  in  his 
court  suit.  We  passed  to  the  reception  -  room, 
where  we  found  Mayor  Bigelow  engaged  in  intro 
ducing  the  members  of  the  city  government.  Mr. 
Webster  paid  no  attention  to  the  mayor,  but  he 
took  possession  of  the  floor,  and  in  a  loud  voice  he 
proceeded  to  announce  the  names  of  the  gentlemen 
that  he  had  in  charge. 

His  only  apparent  regret  was  the  fact  that  they 
were  not  more  numerous.  It  is  difficult  to  compre 
hend  the  hauteur  of  Mr.  Webster's  bearing,  or  the 
weight  of  the  indignity  that  he  heaped  upon  the 
mayor  and  his  associates.  Mr.  Webster  was  en 
titled  to  precedence,  but  he  asserted  himself  as 
though  the  mayor  were  an  offensive  intruder  and 
too  low  or  too  base  for  notice. 


THE  STATESMAN. 


55 


The  day  following  our  introduction  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  were  received 
by  the  State  authorities.  It  fell  to  me  to  make  a 
speech  of  welcome.  I  prepared  my  speech,  and 
gave  it  to  the  newspapers,  but  by  an  oversight, 
which  I  can  not  explain,  I  omitted  all  reference  to 
Mr.  Webster,  although  I  had  given  a  sentence  to 
his  associates  who  were  present.  At  about  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  fact  of  the  omission  oc 
curred  -to  me.  I  then  prepared  a  paragraph,  and 
sent  it  to  the  printers. 

At  the  reception  the  President  was  upon  my 
right  upon  the  dais,  Secretaries  Conrad  and  Stuart 
sat  upon  his  right,  and  Mr.  Webster  had  a  seat 
upon  my  left.  Neither  Conrad  nor  Stuart  gave 
any  recognition  of  my  allusion  to  them ;  but  when 
I  referred  to  Mr.  Webster,  he  rose  from  his  seat 
immediately,  and  in  return  the  immense  audience  re 
sponded  with  cheers  such  as  had  often  greeted  him 
in  his  brightest  days.  In  that  act  he  exhibited  the 
quality  of  the  gentleman  and  the  skill  of  the  actor. 

In  his  speech  in  reply  he  gave  a  very  distinct 
^indorsement  to  my  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  State,  but  not  upon  partisan  grounds.  The 
election  in  1851  was  hotly  contested,  and  I  attribute 
my  success  to  the  support  which  Mr.  Webster 
gave  to  me  in  that  speech  and  privately  to  his 
friends. 


56  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

In  the  month  of  May,  1852,  the  clergy  of  the 
Methodist  Church  held  a  National  Convention  in 
Boston.  Mr.  Webster  was  invited  to  make  an  ad 
dress  to  the  convention,  The  meeting1  was  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  Mr.  Webster's  last  appear 
ance  on  that  historical  stage.  He  was  then  a  can 
didate  for  the  presidency.  It  was  understood  that 
the  occasion  was  designed  to  promote  his  ambition 
in  that  respect,  but  the  time  had  passed  when  his 
appearance  in  public  could  advance  his  political 
fortunes.  Age,  disappointments,  and  disease  had 
wrought  terrible  changes  in  his  condition  and  ap 
pearance.  His  form  was  wasted,  his  voice,  once 
electric  and  commanding,  had  lost  its  power  and 
cadence,  and  his  intellectual  faculties  were  slow  in 
movement  and  lacking  in  force.  In  the  reception- 
room  he  welcomed  his  old  friend  Thomas  H.  Per 
kins,  in  the  tones  of  voice  which  in  former  days 
had  charmed  audiences  that  took  but  little  interest 
in  his  methodical  arguments.  Mr.  Webster  had 
prepared  the  heads  of  his  remarks  upon  sheets  of 
note-paper,  and  his  son  Fletcher  sat  in  front  of 
him,  and  handed  the  sheets  to  his  father,  one  by 
one,  as  the  topics  were  treated.  There  were  a  few 
occasions  when  Mr.  Webster's  voice  rang  through 
the  hall  with  something  of  its  old-time  force  and 
tones,  but  generally  he  could  not  be  heard  at  the 
distance  of  twenty  feet.  Indeed,  many  of  his  words 


THE  STATESMAN.  57 

were  inaudible  to  those  who  were  upon  the  plat 
form. 

The  ambition  of  Mr.  Webster  and  of  his  friends 
was  not  promoted  by  his  appearance  upon  a  stage 
where  in  his  better  days  he  had  achieved  many 
signal  triumphs. 

Mr.  Webster  returned  to  Washington,  where  he 
awaited  the  action  of  the  Whig  Convention  that 
assembled  at  Baltimore.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  nomination  of  General  Scott  was  a  severe 
disappointment.  That  he  should  have  anticipated 
his  own  nomination  is  an  additional  evidence  of  the 
infatuation  which  takes  possession  of  men  whose 
thoughts  are  directed  to  the  presidency.  Mr. 
Webster's  friends,  and  probably  Mr.  Webster  him 
self,  anticipated  that  the  South  would  recognize 
its  obligation  for  his  speech  of  the  ;th  of  March, 
1850.  From  the  South,  however,  he  received  no 
support.  His  disappointment  must  have  been  bit-1 
ter,  but  his  "  midnight  speech,"  as  it  was  called,  was 
a  masterpiece  of  self-control  under  trying  circum 
stances,  and  an  exhibition  of  his  genius  as  an  orator, 
which  equaled  the  best  efforts  of  his  best  days. 

Upon  the  nomination  of  General  Scott  his 
friends  called  upon  him  for  a  speech,  and  after 
listening  to  him  they  called  upon  Mr.  Webster,  in 
the  hope  that  they  might  obtain  his  indorsement 
of  the  proceedings. 


58  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

He  was  then  impaired  seriously  in  health  and  in 
spirits  he  was  broken  completely.  His  speech  is 
worthy  of  notice  as  a  singularly  graceful  effort,  and 
as  the  last  brilliant  spark  of  his  expiring  genius : 

"  I  thank  you,  fellow-citizens,  for  your  friendly 
and  respectful  call.  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you. 

"  Some  of  you  have  been  engaged  in  an  ardu 
ous  public  duty  at  Baltimore,  the  object  of  your 
meeting  being  the  selection  of  a  fit  person  to  be 
supported  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States.  Others  of  you  take  an  interest  in  the  result 
of  the  deliberations  of  that  assembly  of  Whigs.  It 
so  happened  that  my  name  among  others  was  pre 
sented  on  the  occasion.  Another  candidate,  how 
ever,  was  preferred. 

t;  I  have  only  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  the  con 
vention  did,  I  doubt  notn  what  it  thought  best,  and 
exercised  its  discretion  in  the  important  matter 
committed  to  it.  The  result  has  caused  me  no  per 
sonal  feeling  whatever,  nor  any  change  of  conduct 
or  purpose. 

"  What  I  have  been  I  am  in  principle  and  in  char 
acter;  and  what  I  am,  I  hope  to  continue  to  be. 

"  Circumstances  or  opponents  may  triumph  over 
my  fortunes,  but  they  will  not  triumph  over  my 
temper  or  my  self-respect. 

"  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  serene  and  beautiful  night. 
Ten  thousand  thousand  of  the  lights  of  heaven 
illuminate  the  firmament.  They  rule  the  night.  A 
few  hours  hence  their  glory  will  be  extinguished. 


THE  STATESMAN.  59 

'  Ye  stars  that  glitter  in  the  skies, 
And  gayly  dance  before  my  eyes, 
What  are  ye  when  the  sun  shall  rise  ? ' 

"  Gentlemen,  there  is  not  one  among  you  who 
will  sleep  better  to-night  than  I  shall.  If  I  wake  I 
shall  learn  the  hour  from  the  constellations,  and  1 
shall  rise  in  the  morning,  God  willing,  with  the  lark ; 
and  though  the  lark  is  a  better  songster  than  I  am, 
yet  he  will  not  leave  the  dew  and  the  daisies  and 
spring  upward  to  greet  the  purpling  east  with  a 
more  blithe  and  jocund  spirit  than  I  possess.  Gen 
tlemen,  I  again  repeat  my  thanks  for  this  mark  of 
your  respect,  and  commend  you  to  the  enjoyment 
of  a  quiet  and  satisfactory  repose.  May  God  bless 
you  all!"* 

General  Scott  was  not  indorsed,  the  Whig 
party  was  neither  applauded  nor  condemned,  and 
his  own  purposes  were  carefully  concealed.  In  his 
reference  to  the  night  and  the  stars  there  was  a 
touch  of  sarcasm,  which  was  repeated  when  he 
commended  his  hearers  "to  the  enjoyment  of  a 
quiet  and  satisfactory  repose." 

His  career  as  a  politician  was  ended,  and  in  his 
place  as  Secretary  of  State  there  remained  nothing 
of  importance  to  be  considered. 


*  This  speech  was  corrected  by  Mr.  Webster  and  published  in  the 
Boston  "  Transcript,"  with  a  note  that  it  had  theretofore  been  printed 
in  a  mutilated  form. 
5 


60  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

He  returned  to  Massachusetts,  broken  in  spirit, 
if  not  altogether  crushed. 

During  his  final  illness  in  October,  1852,  he  dic 
tated  a  letter  to  me  in  behalf  of  a  neighbor,  and  the 
foreman  on  his  farm  at  Marshfield,  for  whom  he 
wished  an  appointment  as  justice  of  the  peace. 
It  was  his  last  effort  to  express  his  thoughts  or 
wishes  upon  paper.  After  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Web 
ster,  I  received  the  letter  with  a  note  from  Mr. 
Abbott,  his  Secretary,  in  which  he  said  that  Mr. 
Webster  was  unable  to  affix  his  signature  to  the 
communication. 

In  the  case  of  Mr.  Webster,  death  did  not  de 
stroy  nor  even  qualify  the  physical  marks  of  his 
intellectual  greatness.  When  he  lay  in  his  coffin, 
under  the  elms  at  Marshfield,  his  form  appeared  as 
majestic  as  when  he  stood  upon  the  rostrum  in 
Faneuil  Hall.  His  brow  was  massive,  his  eyes 
were  large,  deep  sunken,  and  surrounded  by  a 
dark  circle.  His  face  was  emaciated,  but  the  en 
graved  lines  of  toil  and  care  remained.  He  seemed 
a  giant  in  repose. 

In  Mr.  Webster  great  power  of  argument  and 
a  lofty  imagination  were  combined.  In  argument 
he  spoke  as  one  having  a  right  to  speak  and  to  be 
heard,  and,  if  he  ever  descended  to  personalities,  it 
was  only  when  he  was  under  great  provocation. 


THE  STATESMAN.  6 1 

In  many  qualities,  considered  individually,  Mr. 
Webster  has  been  surpassed  ;  but  in  absolute  great 
ness  of  intellect,  our  search  for  his  equal  must  be 
far  and  wide,  not  only  among  his  contemporaries, 
but  through  the  whole  domain  of  history.  As  Sec 
retary  of  State  he  was  not  a  distinguished  nor  even 
a  successful  administrator,  and  the  only  evidence  of 
his  originating  or  organizing  faculty  is  contained 
in  the  crimes  act,  passed  in  the  year  1825.  There 
are  incidents  in  his  career  which  warrant  the  con 
clusion  that  he  had  a  dislike  to  the  details  of  busi 
ness,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  later 
years  of  his  life  he  relied  upon  others  even  in  the 
preparation  of  his  arguments  and  speeches. 

At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Judge  Story,  the 
statement  was  made  that  among  his  papers  were 
seventy-five  letters  from  Mr.  Webster  asking  for 
suggestions  and  opinions  upon  legal  points  and 
topics. 

But  given  a  case,  a  cause,  a  question,  a  subject 
for  argument,  and  Mr.  Webster  was  without  a  peer, 
whether  he  was  called  to  the  attack  or  the  defense. 
His  premiership  does  not  rest  upon  any  one  speech 
or  argument.  His  first  great  argument  of  histori 
cal  record  was  made  in  the  Dartmouth  College 
case,  in  the  year  1818.  He  was  then  in  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age.  He  had  already  reached 
a  high  position  as  a  lawyer,  but  it  is  manifest  that 


63  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

his  great  faculties  did  not  mature  at  an  early  pe 
riod.  His  college  style  of  writing  was  vicious,  and 
we  may  assume  that  his  imagination  and  logical 
faculties  were  not  blended  into  harmony  without 
the  influence  of  time  and  great  self-discipline. 

Indeed,  his  Latin  peroration  in  the  Dartmouth 
College  case  could  not  be  justified,  nor  would  any 
advocate  now  venture  upon  a  similar  experiment 
in  the  presence  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  A  long  line  of  historical  speeches  and 
arguments  followed,  some  of  which  contain  pas 
sages  of  enduring  value  as  literary  productions. 
They  can  be  read  as  lessons  in  the  schools,  and 
recited  by  the  youth  of  the  land.  There  are  con 
stant  changes  in  the  public  taste  and  judgment  in 
literary  matters,  and  books  that  are  read  writh 
avidity  by  one  generation  are  wholly  neglected  by 
a  succeeding  generation ;  but  we  can  not  imagine 
a  time  nor  a  condition  of  society  when  Webster's 
morning  drum-beat  passage  will  lose  its  charm. 
His  description  of  a  superior  human  intellect  in 
his  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson  is  so  true,  so 
graphic,  and  so  grand,  that  it  must  always  com 
mand  the  admiration  of  the  reader.  Without  ex 
aggeration  he  has  painted  the  scene  of  the  mur 
der  of  Captain  White,  and  given  voice  to  the 
thoughts  and  sentiments  of  the  assassin,  in  manner 
and  form  so  truthful  and  attractive  that  his  words 


THE  STATESMAN.  63 

must  find  a  place  in  the  living  literature  of  future 
times. 

He  created  a  speech  for  John  Adams,  which 
has  deceived  attentive  readers  and  students.  In 
the  peroration  to  his  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne,  he 
sketched  a  picture  of  the  civil  war  as  it  was  seen 
by  the  succeeding  generation.  His  fears  led  him 
to  apprehend  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  in  the  event 
of  a  civil,  sectional  war,  growing  out  of  the  system 
of  slavery,  but  his  hopes  triumphed  over  his  fears, 
and  he  closed  with  the  utterance  which  has,  as  we 
trust,  become  imperishable  truth  :  "  Liberty  and 
union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable." 

Mr.  Webster's  emotional  nature  was  strong,  and, 
in  his  speech  in  support  of  General  Harrison  as 
the  "log -cabin  candidate,"  he  made  a  touching 
allusion  to  his  birthplace  and  to  the  devotion  of  his 
father  to  his  home  and  his  country. 

By  way  of  ridicule  and  reproach,  the  Demo 
cratic  party  had  styled  General  Harrison  the  "  log- 
cabin  candidate." 

The  Whig  party  accepted  the  designation,  and 
it  became  the  watchword  of  the  canvass  and  the 
sign  under  which  the  party  triumphed.  Said  Mr. 
Webster : 

"  Let  him  be  the  log-cabin  candidate.  What 
you  say  in  scorn,  we  will  shout  with  all  our  lungs  !  " 


64  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

He  then  turned  to  reflections  suggested  by  his 
own  experience  : 

"  It  did  not  happen  to  me  to  be  born  in  a  log- 
cabin  ;  but  my  elder  brothers  and  sisters  were  born 
in  a  log-cabin,  raised  amid  the  snow-drifts  of  New 
Hampshire,  at  a  period  so  early  that,  when  the 
smoke  first  rose  from  its  rude  chimney,  and  curled 
over  the  frozen  hills,  there  was  no  similar  evidence 
of  a  white  man's  habitation  between  it  and  the 
settlements  on  the  rivers  of  Canada.  ...  I  weep 
to  think  that  none  of  those  who  inhabited  it  are 
now  among  the  living;  and  if  ever  I  am  ashamed 
of  it,  or  if  I  ever  fail  in  affectionate  veneration  for 
him  who  reared  it,  and  defended  it  against  savage 
violence  and  destruction,  cherished  all  the  domestic 
virtues  beneath  its  roof,  and,  through  the  fire  and 
blood  of  a  seven  years'  Revolutionary  War,  shrunk 
from  no  danger,  no  toil,  no  sacrifices,  to  save  his 
country,  and  to  raise  his  children  to  a  condition 
better  than  his  own,  may  my  name  and  the  name 
of  my  posterity  be  blotted  forever  from  the  memory 
of  mankind." 

These  passages  are  not  of  the  best  of  Mr.  Web 
ster's  literary  efforts,  but  they  show  the  nature  and 
depth  of  his  attachment  to  his  family  and  his 
country. 

In  respect  to  Mr.  Webster's  powers  of  argu 
ment  as  a  close  technical  lawyer,  he  may  be  read 
at  his  best  in  the  case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders. 


THE  STATESMAN.  65 

Although  the  question  was  a  constitutional  ques 
tion,  the  argument  was  within  narrow  limits.  The 
Supreme  Court  had  already  decided  that  it  was 
not  competent  for  a  State  to  pass  a  bankrupt  law 
by  which  debtors  should  be  discharged  from  pre 
existing  contracts. 

In  the  case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders,  the  court 
was  called  to  decide  whether  a  State  could  pass  an 
act  by  which  debtors  could  be  relieved  from  con 
tracts  made  subsequent  to  the  date  of  the  law. 

With  great  ingenuity  of  reasoning  Mr.  Webster 
contended  that  a  State  had  no  more  power  to  im 
pair  a  future  contract  than  it  had  to  impair  a  prior 
contract.  The  court,  by  a  majority,  held  that  the 
obligation  of  a  contract  made  subsequent  to  the 
passage  of  the  bankrupt  law,  was  not  impaired  by 
a  provision  that  the  obligor  might  be  discharged 
from  his  obligation,  although  he  had  not  performed 
it.  Chief-Justice  Marshall  and  Justices  Darrall  and 
Story  dissented.  In  support  of  this  doctrine,  final 
ly  accepted  by  the  majority  of  the  court,  it  was  ar 
gued  at  the  bar  that,  upon  the  passage  of  a  bank 
rupt  law  by  a  State,  the  statute  was  imported  into 
and  became  a  part  of  all  subsequent  contracts. 

This  theory  was  assailed  by  Mr.  Webster  in  an 
unanswerable  argument,  but  the  court  appears  to 
have  accepted  the  theory  in  substance,  if  not  in 
terms.  The  leading  opinion  by  the  majority  was 


66  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

given  by  Mr.  Justice  Washington,  and  he  relied 
upon  a  technical  distinction  between  a  contract  and 
the  obligation  of  a  contract. 

He  maintained  that  the  contract  was  the  work 
of  the  parties,  but  that  the  obligation  of  a  con 
tract  was  the  creature  of  the  law.  This  is  an  error 
both  in  law  and  ethics.  The  obligation  of  a  con 
tract  is  what  is  declared  to  be  the  mind  of  the  par 
ties  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  contract. 

It  is  the  province  of  the  law  to  find,  by  judicial 
processes,  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  obligation 
assumed  by  the  parties,  and  then  to  enforce  the 
performance  of  the  obligation.  The  law  creates 
nothing.  It  has  no  power  to  create  either  the  obli 
gation  or  the  contract. 

Possibly  the  error  of  the  court  may  be  found  in 
the  original  opinion,  Sturgis  vs.  Crowninshield. 
In  that  case  it  was  held  that  a  State  might  pass  a 
bankrupt  law,  subject  to  the  condition  that  existing 
contracts  could  not  be  affected. 

The  Constitution  gave  to  Congress  power  to 
pass  a  uniform  system  of  bankruptcy ;  and  it  also 
provided  that  a  State  should  not  pass  any  law  im 
pairing  the  obligation  of  contracts. 

As  these  provisions  are  of  the  same  instrument, 
they  should  have  been  considered  together,  and  a 
conclusion  should  have  been  reached  which  was 
reasonable  and  which  would  also  give  effect  to  the 


THE  STATESMAN.  67 

language  employed.  The  court  might  have  said 
that  the  grant  of  power  to  Congress  to  establish  a 
uniform  system  of  bankruptcy  was  equivalent  to 
the  denial  of  the  power  to  the  States  to  establish  a 
State  system.  This  construction  was  open  to  two 
objections,  one  of  public  convenience  and  the  other 
of  constitutional  interpretation. 

If  Congress  should  neglect  to  enact  and  main 
tain  a  uniform  system  of  bankruptcy,  as,  in  fact,  it 
has  neglected  to  enact  and  maintain  such  a  system 
for  much  the  larger  part  of  our  national  exist 
ence,  the  denial  of  any  power  to  the  States  would 
have  resulted  in  a  serious  and  irremediable  incon 
venience.  And  next,  inasmuch  as  the  Constitution 
contains  many  inhibitions  upon  the  powers  of  the 
States,  and  as  the  power  to  pass  bankrupt  acts  is 
not  among  them,  there  was  no  tenable  ground  on 
which  the  court  could  add  to  the  disabilities  of 
the  States. 

The  power  of  the  court  was  thus  limited  to  a 
definition  of  the  bankrupt  law  which  a  State  might 
pass.  In  the  nature  of  our  system  there  was  one 
limitation  to  the  powers  of  the  States.  A  State 
bankrupt  law  could  not  be  uniform  inasmuch  as 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  State  is  limited  to  its  own  citi 
zens  and  to  contracts  made  under  its  laws. 

It  might  therefore  with  reason  have  been  held 
that  the  power  granted  by  Congress  to  establish  a 


68  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

uniform  system  of  bankruptcy  was  designed  to  sup 
plement  the  power  reserved  to  the  States. 

Again,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  assume  that  the 
right  of  a  State  to  enact  a  bankrupt  law  is  the  same 
in  its  nature  and  quality  as  the  power  granted  to 
Congress,  subject  only  to  the  necessary  limitation 
that  it  can  not  be  uniform. 

There  are  also  two  other  considerations  lead 
ing  to  the  same  conclusion.  In  England,  and  in  the 
States  under  the  Confederation,  it  was  a  recognized 
power  of  a  government  to  relieve  a  debtor  from 
his  debts  under  a  bankrupt  system.  It  is  also  to  be 
observed  that,  by  virtue  of  each  of  the  three  bank 
rupt  laws  of  the  United  States,  the  power  to  grant 
to  debtors  a  full  and  free  discharge  from  all  their 
debts  and  obligations  has  been  conferred  upon  the 
courts.  In  presence  of  these  authorities,  and  upon 
a  fair  construction  of  the  Constitution,  the  Supreme 
Court  might  have  held  that  the  grant  of  power 
to  Congress  was  supplementary  of  the  power  ex 
isting  in  the  States,  and  that  a  bankrupt  law  en 
acted  by  a  State  could  operate  upon  its  citizens  as 
a  bankrupt  law  enacted  by  Congress  could  oper 
ate  upon  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

A  system  of  bankruptcy  has  an  adequate  foun 
dation  in  public  morals.  A  government  should 
not  require  its  citizens  or  subjects  to  attempt  im 
possibilities.  It  must  happen  often  that  men  en- 


THE  STATESMAN.  69 

gaged  in  large  undertakings  become  insolvent,  and 
under  such  circumstances  that  it  is  practically  im 
possible  for  them  to  meet  their  liabilities  in  full 
either  in  the  present  or  the  future. 

In  such  a  condition  it  is  against  public  policy  to 
hold  such  persons  in  semi-servitude.  Their  abili 
ties  and  services  have  a  value  not  to  themselves 
merely,  put  to  the  public  also. 

In  the  case  of  Sturgis  vs.  Crowninshield  (4 
Wheaton,  122),  the  court  held  that  a  State  bank 
rupt  law  which  provided  for  the  discharge  of  the 
debtor  from  the  obligation  of  a  contract  existing  at 
the  time  the  statute  was  enacted,  was  unconstitu 
tional,  and  upon  the  ground  that  it  was  a  violation 
of  the  provision  which  denies  to  States  the  power 
to  pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  con 
tracts. 

In  the  case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders  the  court 
was  called  to  decide  the  question,  Can  a  State,  by 
virtue  of  a  bankrupt  law,  relieve  a  debtor  from  the 
obligation  of  a  contract  made  subsequent  to  the 
passage  of  the  law? 

It  seems  an  absurdity  to  maintain  that  the  ex 
isting  laws  in  regard  to  the  enforcement  of  con 
tracts  are  incorporated  into  every  contract  be 
tween  individuals  ;  but  in  the  case  of  Ogden  and 
Saunders  the  court  was  driven  to  that  conclusion, 
in  substance,  and  the  theory  was  announced  in  the 


70  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

opinion  of  Mr.  Justice  Washington.  Mr.  Webster 
combated  that  view,  and  he  was  sustained  by 
Chief-Justice  Marshall. 

A  law  speaks  in  the  present  tense,  and  it  does 
not  speak  until  there  is  a  case.  Manifestly  the 
obligation  of  a  contract  does  not  arise  from  the 
statute,  but  from  the  intent  of  the  parties  of  which 
the  contract  is  the  evidence.  Consequently,  the 
obligation  is  the  same  when  there  is  a  bankrupt 
law  in  force  as  when  there  is  no  such  law ;  and 
consequently,  also,  a  law  which  sets  aside  or  annuls 
or  qualifies  the  obligation,  necessarily  impairs  that 
obligation,  and  that  without  reference  to  the  con 
dition  of  the  law  when  the  contract  was  made. 
Otherwise  parties  and  the  court  would  search  the 
statutes  for  the  nature  of  a  contract  obligation  in 
stead  of  examining  the  contract  itself.  It  might 
have  been  a  reasonable  construction  for  the  court 
to  have  held  that  contracts,  which  in  their  nature 
and  by  usage,  were  subject  to  the  operation  of  a 
bankrupt  law  were  excepted  out  of  the  inhibition 
to  States  in  regard  to  contracts. 

It  is  a  noticeable  feature  of  Mr.  Webster's  ca 
reer  that  two  of  his  most  important  forensic  efforts 
were  made  in  criminal  causes,  one  for  the  defense 
and  one  for  the  prosecution. 

In  1817  he  defended  two  young  men  named 
Kenniston,  who  were  charged  with  assaulting  and 


THE  STATESMAN.  ji 

robbing  one  Goodridge  upon  the  highway  between 
the  town  of  Exeter,  in  the  State  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  Newburyport,  Massachusetts.  Good 
ridge  was  wounded  in  the  hand  by  a  pistol-shot, 
and  he  claimed  that  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
had  been  taken  from  him.  By  Mr.  Webster's  skill 
he  was  at  once  put  upon  the  defensive.  Persons 
charged  with  crimes  of  the  nature  of  robbery, 
arson,  or  murder,  are  usually  driven  to  account  for 
their  existence  and  doings  at  the  time  when  the 
crime  was  committed.  Goodridge  was  called  to 
stand  a  similar  test.  He  was  four  or  four  and  a 
half  hours  on  the  way  from  Exeter  to  Newbury 
port,  when  he  could  have  driven  over  the  road  in 
two  or  two  and  a  half  hours.  This  delay  Good 
ridge  was  unable  to  explain.  It  was  shown  that 
money  and  papers  were  found  in  the  house  occu 
pied  by  the  accused,  but  only  in  places  to  which 
Goodridge  had  had  access. 

The  verdict  by  which  the  accused  were  acquit 
ted  was  received  by  the  public  as  a  verdict  of 
guilty  against  Goodridge. 

At  the  trial  of  the  Knapps,  in  1830,  Mr.  Web 
ster,  who  appeared  in  behalf  of  the  government, 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  Goodridge  case.  In 
that  case,  Judge  William  Prescott,  father  of  the 
historian,  was  retained  by  the  government  to  aid  in 
the  prosecution.  When  Mr.  Webster  appeared  for 


72  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

the  government  at  the  trial  of  the  Knapps,  the 
counsel  for  the  accused  complained  of  his  presence, 
and  said  that  he  had  been  brought  there  to  hurry 
the  court  and  jury  "  against  the  law  and  beyond 
the  evidence."  In  his  long  career  at  the  bar,  in 
Congress,  and  in  general  politics,  he  never  allowed 
a  personal  imputation  to  rest  for  a  day  without  re 
ply  and  rebuke.  He  asserted  himself  in  his  reply 
to  Hayne,  in  his  defense  against  the  attacks  of 
Ingersoll,  in  his  scornful  denunciation  of  the  reso 
lutions  of  the  Whig  party  of  Massachusetts  in  1842, 
and  in  his  many  letters  and  speeches  in  justifica 
tion  of  his  speech  of  the  7th  of  March,  1850. 

In  reply  to  the  aspersions  cast  upon  him  by  the 
counsel  for  the  Knapps,  he  indulged  in  deferential 
compliments  to  the  court,  assuring  the  members 
that  if  he  made  the  attempt  it  would  be  impossible 
to  carry  them  against  the  law ;  and  to  the  jury  he 
said  that  they  could  "  not  be  hurried  beyond  the 
evidence."  Turning  to  the  counsel  for  the  prison 
ers,  and  referring  to  the  Goodridge  robbery,  he 
said  : 

"  I  remember  that  the  learned  head  of  the  Suf 
folk  bar,  Mr.  Prescott,  came  down  in  aid  of  the 
officers  of  the  government.  This  was  regarded  as 
neither  strange  nor  improper.  The  counsel  for  the 
prisoners,  in  that  case,  contented  themselves  with 
answering  his  arguments,  as  far  as  they  were  able, 
instead  of  carping  at  his  presence." 


THE  STATESMAN.  73 

The  murder  of  Captain  White  was  committed 
by  Richard  Crowninshield,  for  a  sum  of  money  to 
be  paid  by  Joseph  J.  Knapp,  Jr.  John  Francis 
Knapp,  his  brother,  was  a  party  to  the  conspiracy. 
After  the  arrest  of  the  parties,  Joseph  made  a  full 
confession  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Colman.  When  Crown 
inshield  heard  of  the  confession,  he  committed 
suicide.  He  had  declared  previously  that  he 
would  never  submit  himself  to  the  degradation  of 
a  public  execution.  It  may  be  true,  also,  that  he 
thought  that  by  his  death  his  associates  might  es 
cape  conviction  upon  the  charge  of  murder.  As 
the  law  then  stood,  the  accessories  could  not  be 
convicted  until  after  the  conviction  of  the  princi 
pal.  Cro\vninshield  was  the  principal  and  the 
Knapps  were  accessories.  It  was  proved  that 
Frank  Knapp  stood  at  the  corner  of  Brown  Street 
at  the  time  of  the  murder,  and  at  a  point  where  he 
had  a  full  view  of  the  house.  It  was  also  proved 
that  he  met  Crowninshield  as  he  came  from  the 
house,  that  they  walked  together  for  a  time,  and 
that  they  were  together  when  Crowninshield  hid 
the  club,  with  which  he  had  struck  the  fatal  blow, 
under  the  steps  of  a  church. 

It  was  the  theory  of  the  government  that  Frank 
Knapp  was  at  Brown  Street  for  the  purpose  of  aid 
ing  Crowninshield  in  case  of  necessity,  and  upon 
that  theory  he  was  convicted  as  a  principal.  The 


74  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

final  and  more  deliberate  opinion  is  that  he  was  not 
there  for  any  such  purpose.  In  an  interview  that 
he  had  with  Crowninshield  the  preceding  after 
noon,  Crowninshield  had  said  that  he  did  not  feel 
like  doing  the  work  that  night ;  and  the  probability 
is,  that  there  was  no  arrangement  for  aid  on  the  part 
of  Knapp,  and  that  it  was  only  a  restless,  intense 
interest  in  the  matter  that  carried  him  to  a  place  of 
observation.  Joseph  Knapp  repudiated  his  confes 
sion,  which  he  had  been  led  to  believe  would 
secure  a  commutation  of  punishment  if  not  pardon 
for  his  crime,  and  he  and  his  brother  were  con 
victed  and  executed. 

The  murder  of  Captain  White  was  a  tragedy 
as  horrid  as  any  recorded  in  play  or  history  ;  the 
suicide  of  Richard  Crowninshield  was  a  tragedy 
with  a  quality  of  heroism  in  it ;  and  there  is  some 
thing  which  appeals  to  the  better  elements  of  our 
human  nature  in  the  final  decision  of  Joseph 
Knapp,  in  refusing  to  save  himself  at  the  sacrifice 
of  his  brother's  life. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  select  one  from  Mr. 
Webster's  many  speeches,  and  with  confidence  as 
sign  pre-eminence  to  that  one.  With  hesitation 
I  give  the  first  place  to  his  argument  in  the  trial 
of  Frank  Knapp.  It  presents  six  great  features. 
First  of  all,  his  description  of  the  murder  scene. 
Next,  his  essay  on  the  secret,  which  he  closes  in 


THE  STATESMAN.  75 

these  words  :  "  It  must  be  confessed,  it  will  be  con 
fessed  ;  there  is  no  refuge  from  confession  but  sui 
cide,  and  suicide  is  confession."  Then  came  his 
analysis  of  the  evidence,  which  could  not  have 
been  surpassed  by  Mr.  Choate,  who  was  the  un 
rivaled  master  of  that  branch  of  the  profession. 
Then  we  have  his  summary  of  the  evidence  which 
he  marshaled  as  the  equivalent  of  the  confession  of 
Joseph,  as  it  had  been  related  by  Mr.  Colman,  but 
which  was  of  doubtful  competency : 

"  Compare  what  you  learn  from  this  confession 
with  what  you  before  knew. 

"  As  to  its  being  proposed  by  Joseph,  was  not 
that  before  known  ? 

"  As  to  Richard  being  in  the  house  alone,  was 
not  that  known  ? 

"  As  to  the  daggers,  was  not  that  known  ? 

"  As  to  the  time  of  the  murder,  was  not  that 
known  ? 

"  As  to  his  being  out  that  night,  was  not  that 
known? 

"  As  to  his  returning  afterward,  was  not  that 
known  ? 

"  As  to  the  club,  was  not  that  known  ?  " 

Then  came  his  summary  in  propositions  as  de 
duced  from  the  mass  of  evidence  : 

"  Gentlemen,  I  think  you  can  not  doubt  there 
was  a  conspiracy  formed  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
6 


76  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

mitting  this  murder,  and  who  the  conspirators 
were. 

"  That  you  can  not  doubt  that  the  Crownin- 
shields  and  the  Knapps  were  the  parties  in  this  con 
spiracy. 

"  That  you  can  not  doubt  that  the  prisoner  at 
the  bar  knew  that  the  murder  was  to  be  done  on 
the  night  of  the  6th  of  April. 

"  That  you  can  not  doubt  that  the  murderers  of 
Captain  White  were  the  suspicious  persons  seen  in 
and  about  Brown  Street  on  that  night. 

"  That  you  can  not  doubt  that  Richard  Crovvn- 
inshield  was  the  perpetrator  of  that  crime. 

"  That  you  can  not  doubt  that  the  prisoner  at 
the  bar  was  in  Brown  Street  on  that  night. 

"  If  there,  then  it  must  be  by  agreement,  to 
countenance,  to  aid  the  perpetrator.  And  if  so, 
then  he  is  guilty  as  principal." 

He  then  gave  to  the  jury  some  solemn  admo 
nitions  as  to  the  obligations  resting  upon  them. 
Among  other  observations,  was  this : 

"  There  is  no  evil  that  we  can  not  either  face  or 
fly  from,  but  the  consciousness  of  duty  disregarded. 
A  sense  of  duty  pursues  us  ever.  It  is  omnipres 
ent,  like  the  Deity." 

The  number  of  speeches  that  are  equally  sus 
tained  in  all  their  parts  is  not  large.  The  argu 
ment  in  the  Knapp  trial  is  an  exception  in  that  re 
spect  to  speeches  generally  and  to  Mr.  Webster's 
especially. 


THE  STATESMAN. 


77 


In  most  of  Mr.  Webster's  arguments  and  ora 
tions  there  are  spaces  which  are  uninteresting  to 
the  reader,  and  in  their  delivery  they  were  unin 
teresting  to  the  hearer.  Indeed,  Mr.  Webster  was 
accustomed  to  pass  over  portions  of  his  addresses 
as  if  they  were  of  very  trifling  consequence.  In 
the  Knapp  trial  his  whole  nature  was  alive.  The 
deed  was  a  horrible  one ;  the  public  excitement  was 
intense ;  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  dis 
covery  of  the  criminals  were  extraordinary  ;  and, 
finally,  the  name  of  a  person,  with  whom  Mr.  Web 
ster's  family  had  relations  had  been  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  crime. 

These  facts,  one  and  all,  tended  to  produce  in 
Mr.  Webster's  mind  a  fixed  purpose  to  secure  the 
conviction  of  the  real  criminals. 

%Mr.  Webster's  intellectual  power  was  so  great 
that  he  dominated  over  ordinary  men,  and  juries 
were  often  unable  to  avoid  the  conclusions  to  which 
he  invited  them. 

In  1821  he  was  retained  to  defend  Judge  Pres- 
cott  before  the  Massachusetts  Senate,  upon  articles 
of  impeachment  preferred  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives. 

Much  of  his  argument  is  devoted  to  an  exami 
nation  of  the  evidence  which  related  to  fees  and 
extra  sessions  of  the  court  held  by  the  request  and 
at  the  cost  of  suitors. 


78  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

The  prosecution  had  its  origin  in  personal  hos 
tility  and  political  feeling.  Prescott  was  convicted, 
and  upon  proofs  which  the  Senate  could  not  disre 
gard  ;  but  the  proofs  related  to  a  state  of  facts 
which  the  House  of  Representatives  might  have 
passed  over  without  formal  notice.  Mr.  Webster's 
closing  appeal  to  the  Senate  is  embraced  within 
the  limits  of  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  words,  and 
it  is  a  rare  specimen  of  ethical,  special  pleading. 
It  was  without  influence  with  the  Senate,  but  it 
might  have  been  effectual  if  it  had  been  addressed 
to  a  jury. 

For  twenty  years  Mr.  Webster  was  the  recog 
nized  head  of  the  American  bar,  and  yet  he  was 
not  a  learned  man,  nor  a  lawyer  of  long-continued 
experience  in  the  profession.  He  was  admitted  to 
practice  in  1805,  and  in  1812  he  was  elected  to 
Congress.  Prom  that  time  onward  his  professional 
career  was  broken  and  unsystematic.  His  pre 
eminence  was  due  to  his  intellectual  supremacy, 
and  to  the  adaptation  of  his  faculties  to  a  pursuit 
which  finds  its  strongest  support  in  the  experience 
of  ages  and  the  purest  human  reason. 

The  learning  that  is  essential  to  the  lawyer  may 
be,  and  usually  it  is,  useful  to  the  statesman.  It  is 
also  true  that  the  practice  of  the  profession  in  its 
higher  departments  is  a  fit  preparation  for  success 
ful  work  in  the  field  of  statesmanship.  Previous  to 


THE  STATESMAN.  79 

the  year  1830,  when  Mr.  Webster  made  his  speech 
in  reply  to  Hayne,  he  had  served  six  years  in  Con 
gress;  he  had  been  a  leading  member  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Constitutional  Convention  of  1820;  he  had 
discussed  important  questions  of  constitutional  law 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ; 
and  in  every  place  and  upon  all  questions  he  had 
shown  overmastering  ability  ;  but  the  support 
which  he  then  gave  to  General  Jackson,  in  his  effort 
to  suppress  nullification,  placed  him  at  once  and 
without  debate  in  the  first  class  of  American  states 
men.  From  that  time  onward,  until  the  day  of  his 
death,  his  only  rivals  were  Clay  and  Calhoun. 
They  were  rivals  in  the  opinion  of  the  masses,  but 
neither  of  them  was  his  equal  in  intellectual  power. 
And,  aside  from  this  consideration,  the  claim  to 
statesmanship  can  not  be  made  for  Mr.  Calhoun. 
He  identified  himself  with  the  institution  of  slav 
ery,  and,  subsequent  to  the  close  of  the  war  with 
Great  Britain,  his  policy  never  comprehended  the 
whole  country.  To  the  section  and  to  the  interest 
that  he  represented  he  left  a  legacy  of  individual 
and  public  suffering  such  as  has  not  fallen  to  the 
lot  of  any  people  since  the  early  Christians  were 
hidden  in  the  Catacombs  or  slaughtered  in  the 
amphitheatre  of  ancient  Rome. 

The  gift  of  statesmanship  and  the  power  of  the 
statesman  can  not  be  denied  to  Mr.  Clay.     He  was 


80  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

an  early  and,  in  the  main,  ^consistent  advocate 
of  the  system  of  protection  to  American  indus- 
try  ;  he  supported  a  national,  bank  ;  he  favored 
a  plan  of  internal  improvements,  and  the  improve- 
ami  harbors  of  the  country,  at 


tKe~pubIic  expense.  All  these  measures  have,  in 
principle,  been  accepted  by  the  country.  His 
policy  is  sustained  by  one  of  the  great  parties,  and 
it  receives  a  partial  or  qualified  support  from  the 
other  great  party.  It  is,  however,  a  singular  com 
ment  upon  Mr.  Clay's  influence  that  the  State  which 
he  represented  in  the  House,  in  the  Senate,  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  upon  a  foreign  mission,  gives  no  sup 
port  to  the  great  measures  with  which  he  was  iden 
tified  during  the  whole  of  his  public  life.  Mr. 
Clay's  policy  survives  in  that  section  of  the  country 
to  which  he  did  not  belong  and  which  he  did  not 
represent. 

Mr.  Webster  was  known  as  the  defender  of  the 
Constitution  ;  and  that  he  was,  for  he  well  knew 
that  the  Union  would  stand  as  long  as  the  Consti 
tution  was  observed.  The  Union  was  the  main 
thought  of  his  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne,  and  he 
never  failed  to  return  to  that  thought  in  all  his  sub 
sequent  addresses. 

Calhoun's  teachings  tended  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Union  ;  Webster's  teachings  tended  to  its 
preservation. 


THE  STATESMAN.  8 1 

Upon  Calhoun,  more  than  upon  any  other  man, 
rests  the  responsibility  for  the  civil  war.  Mr.  Web 
ster  strove  to  avert  the  evils  of  war,  and,  although 
his  efforts  were  in  vain,  yet  his  speeches,  and  es 
pecially  his  speech  of  1830,  educated  a  generation 
of  men  in  the  free  States  to  the  duty  of  maintaining 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union  under  it. 

In  political  sentiment  the  armies  of  the  South 
represented  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  the  armies  of  the 
North  represented  Mr.  Webster.  It  is  no  doubt 
true,  as  to  the  North,  that  the  physical  facts  were 
such  that  the  scheme  of  the  South  would  have  been 
resisted  if  Mr.  Webster  had  never  spoken ;  but  it 
is  equally  true  that  Mr.  Webster  infused  his  spirit 
of  attachment  to  the  Union  into  the  whole  body  of 
thinkers  and  readers  in  the  Northern  section  of 
the  country. 

When  Mr.  Webster  made  his  speech  of  the  ;th 
of  March,  1850,  he  was  far  along  in  the  sixty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  a  candidate  for 
the  presidency.  His  motives  may  not  have  been 
clear,  even  to  himself.  Ambition  and  a  sense  of 
duty  may  have  been  so  blended  that  he  did  not 
realize  how  far  his  sense  of  duty  was  controlled 
by  his  wish  to  conciliate  interests  that  theretofore 
had  been  hostile.  As  there  were  bodies  of  intelli 
gent,  patriotic  persons  in  the  North  who  shared 
his  apprehensions  and  who  supported  his  policy, 


82  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  Mr.  Webster  acted 
upon  his  judgment,  and  without  reference  to  per 
sonal  considerations. 

The  settlement  of  the  northeastern  boundary 
dispute,  in  1842,  was  Mr.  Webster's  work.  It  was 
stated  by  Mr.  Webster,  in  substance,  that  the  Presi 
dent  left  the  business  to  him,  and  it  is  neither  un 
reasonable  nor  unjust  to  assume  that  Mr.  Tyler 
was  wholly  indifferent  to  the  question  of  territory, 
which  was  the  real  difficulty  in  the  negotiations. 
As  to  Mr.  Webster,  he  had  to  negotiate  with  three 
parties — Great  Britain,  Maine,  and  Massachusetts. 
Maine  claimed  jurisdiction,  and  Maine  and  Massa 
chusetts  claimed  property  in  the  lands,  some  of 
which  were  ceded  to  Great  Britain. 

It  can  not  be  said  of  Mr.  Webster  that  he  origi 
nated  any  important  public  policy,  but   in  ability 
to  maintain  a  policy  that  he  had  embraced  he  was 
far  superior  to  his  Whig  associates.     Mr.  WebstefV 
was  a  conservative  by  nature,  and  hence  it  camel 
to  pass  that  he  opposed  the  system  of    protection  1 
when  commerce   was   the   chief   interest   of   New  \ 
England  ;  and  hence  it  was  that  he  defended  the  \ 
system  of  protection  when,  by  the  policy  of  the    | 
Government,  the  capital  of  New  England  had  beeny 
invested  in  manufactures.     He  had  no  respect  for 
the  claim  that  political  economy  is  a  cosmopolitan 
science,  and  hence  he  favored  such  legislation  as 


THE  STATESMAN.  83 

promised  the  best  results  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  In  that  he  did  not  err.  The  max 
im,  "  Buy  where  you  can  buy  cheapest  and  sell 
where  you  can  sell  dearest,"  is  often  a  fallacy  as  a 
measure  of  public  policy.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  gov 
ernment  to  favor  that  public  policy  which  will  se 
cure  to  the  laborer  for  each  day's  labor  the  largest 
return  in  the  necessaries,  conveniences,  and  com 
forts  of  personal  and  family  life.  This  the  policy 
of  protection  has  done.  If  we  compare  the  labor 
ing-classes,  in  their  condition,  since  1861,  with 
their  condition  during  the  previous  sixty  years,  we 
shall  find  that  there  has  been  a  continuous  im 
provement.  It  can  be  said,  also,  that  the  laboring- 
classes  of  Europe  have  advanced  in  the  last  twen 
ty-five  years.  The  remark  is  true  ;  but  the  value 
of  the  remark  is  qualified  by  the  fact  that  the 
improvement  in  Europe  has  been  much  less  than 
in  America,  and  by  the  important  circumstances 
that  the  higher  wages  and  better  condition  of 
American  laborers  have  drawn  to  America  large 
classes  of  farmers  and  artisans,  thereby  improv 
ing  the  condition  of  those  who  remained  at 
home. 

In  diplomatic  debate  Mr.  Webster  has  not  been 
surpassed  by  any  one  who  has  held  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State,  but  the  questions  that  he  was 
called  to  consider  were  much  inferior  in  impor- 


84  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

tance  to  those  which  subsequently  engaged  the 
attention  of  Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Fish. 

Mr.  Webster  had  a  successful  career,  although, 
in  his  ambition  to  become  President,  he  was  disap 
pointed.  Such  failures  have  been  frequent ;  and  as 
the  attainment  of  the  office  is  not  in  all  cases  a 
success,  so  the  failure  to  attain  it  is  not  in  all  cases 
a  misfortune.  He  was  at  once  the  head  of  the 
American  bar,  the  first  English-speaking  orator 
when  his  powers  were  at  their  maturity,  and  a 
recognized  master  in  the  list  of  American  states 
men. 

Mr.  Webster  was  one  of  the  last  of  a  long  line 
of  American  statesmen  who,  in  the  presence  of 
slavery,  strove  to  preserve  liberty  and  the  Union, 
and  of  that  long  line  he  was  the  greatest.  For 
seventy  years  the  thoughtful  men  of  all  parties 
were  forced  to  consider  the  system  of  slavery 
in  America,  its  relations  to  the  Union,  and  its  inher 
ent  antagonism  to  the  principles  on  which  the  Gov 
ernment  was  founded.  Of  all  Mr.  Webster's  con 
temporaries  no  one  was  more  susceptible  than  he 
to  these  influences.  By  nature,  by  education,  and 
upon  his  mature  judgment,  he  was  opposed  to 
every  form  of  human  servitude.  In  1820  he  anath 
ematized  slavery  in  invectives  fierce  and  strong  as 
any  which  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  Clarkson,  Wil- 
berforce,  Phillips,  or  Garrison. 


THE  STATESMAN.  85 

No  martyr  was  ever  more  devoted  to  his  faith 
than  was  Mr.  Webster  to  the  Union  of  the  States,, 
and  to  its  service  he  had  contributed  the  best 
thoughts  of  his  life  and  the  most  brilliant  passages 
of  his  orations.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  in  1850,  to  Mr.  Webster's  eye,  the  ways  seemed 
to  part.  He  thought  that  the  Union  was  in  peril, 
and  that  the  further  agitation  of  the  slavery  ques 
tion  would  add  to  the  peril. 

Slavery  had  given  birth  to  one  form  of  civiliza 
tion,  and  freedom  had  given  birth  to  another,  and 
from  the  beginning  the  rule  of  the  continent  was 
the  prize  for  which  the  parties  had  contended. 
Each  succeeding  census  made  clear  and  more  clear 
the  truth  that  time  was  on  the  side  of  liberty,  and 
that  a  postponement  of  the  struggle  would  be  fatal 
to  slavery.  Hence  each  census  from  1820  to  1860, 
inclusive,  with  the  exception  of  that  of  1840,  when 
the  public  mind  was  preoccupied  with  grave  ques 
tions  of  finance,  wrought  a  crisis  which  menaced 
the  public  peace.  On  two  occasions  Mr.  Webster 
met  the  peril  and- controlled  it:  First,  in  1830, 
when  he  chose  his  place  with  General  Jackson, 
and  won  imperishable  fame  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  ;  and  again  in  1850,  when  he  secured  a  post 
ponement  of  the  contest,  but  at  the  sacrifice  of  his 
popularity  and  the  ruin  of  his  political  fortunes. 

Mr.  Webster  claimed  that  the  postponement  of 


86  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

the  struggle  would  result  in  the  supremacy  of 
liberty  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union ;  and 
it  would  be  unjust  to  deny  to  him  that  foresight, 
statesmanship,  and  patriotism  which  the  claim  in 
volves.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  he  did  not  antici 
pate  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery.  His 
thoughts  and  policy  contemplated  only  peaceful 
measures— first,  the  limitation  of  the  system,  and 
then  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 

The  compromise  measures  of  1850  gave  the 
North  ten  years  of  time,  and  those  years  were 
years  of  preparation  for  the  struggle  of  1860  and 
the  war  of  the  rebellion. 

In  these  ten  years  the  public  mind  was  edu 
cated  and  the  body  of  the  people  were  prepared 
for  the  solution  of  the  problem,  whether  by  peace 
or  Avar.  If  the  contest  had  been  precipitated  in 
1850,  the  result  might  have  been  a  division  of  the 
republic,  and  for  the  continent  there  would  have 
been  neither  union  nor  liberty. 

It  is  not  just  to  Mr.  Webster  to  assume  tha.t  he 
builded  better  than  he  knew.  He  builded  as  he 
knew. 

At  the  moment  of  his  death  his  policy  appeared 
to  be  acceptable  to  the  country  ;  but,  in  less  than 
two  years,  old  compromises  were  violated,  and  it 
was  then  idle  and  in  vain  to  make  appeals  in  be 
half  of  the  new.  In  the  review  we  must  admit 


THE  STATESMAN.  87 

that  the  processes  of  compromise  from  the  forma 
tion  of  the  Constitution  to  the  opening  of  the  re 
bellion  were  calculated  to  preserve  liberty  and  the 
Union,  and,  in  the  end,  to  render  them  one  and  in 
separable. 

The  incidental  results  were  disagreeable,  but 
they  were  also  temporary.  The  end  was  freedom 
for  the  continent,  and  a  continent  included  within 
the  limits  of  the  Union.  Thus  liberty  and  the 
Union  became  one  and  inseparable. 

For  twenty  years  Mr.  Webster  was  the  chief 
personage  in  Massachusetts,  in  New  England,  in 
the  republic.  In  politics  he  had  competitors ; 
but  in  diplomacy,  in  logical  precision  and  force, 
in  knowledge  of  the  Constitution,  in  ability 
/to  deal  with  the  gravest  questions  of  law  and 
statesmanship,  in  that  genius  by  whose  power  he 
adorned  whatever  he  said  with  an  imagery  as  bold 
and  magnificent  as  that  of  Milton  and  as  true  to 
nature  as  that  of  Shakespeare,  he  was  without  an 
equal  or  a  rival.  Wherever  he  stood,  he  was  great ; 
and  the  demand  which  he  made  for  public  consid 
eration  was  based  on  that  greatness. 

Mr.  Webster  was  not  an  unconscious  bearer  of 
a  royal  intellect,  and  at  the  end  he  was  forced  to 
look  with  something  of  contempt  upon  that  public 
sentiment  which  advanced  inferior  men  and  denied 
to  him  the  chiefest  honor  of  the  republic. 


88  DANIEL    WEBSTER 

When  Mr.  Webster  spoke  at  Plymouth  in  1820, 
when  he  spoke  in  the  Senate  of  1830,  there  were 
men  living  who  had  heard  Burke,  and  Fox,  and 
Sheridan;  and  with  them  only? of  all  English-speak 
ing  orators,  was  he  contrasted  or  compared.  And 
if,  for  the  moment,  we  can  command  the  whole  range 
of  history,  it  is  difficult  to  summon  another  orator 
who,  in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  contest  of  1830,  could 
have  met  so  completely  the  demand  of  the  occa 
sion,  and  justified  his  cause  and  the  conduct  of  it 
to  future  ages.  And  if,  again,  for  the  moment  we 
can  command  the  whole  range  of  history,  can  its 
ten  great  orators  be  named,  and  Mr.  Webster  be 
excluded  from  the  list?  Of  those  who  have  spoken 
the  English  language,  he  is  inferior  only  to  Burke ; 
and  if  the  position  which  Macaulay  assigns  to 
Burke  shall  be  sustained  by  the  continuing  judg 
ment  of  mankind,  then  will  Mr.  Webster's  country 
men  claim  for  him  the  second  place  on  the  page  of 
universal  history. 

An  orator  is  not  made  by  a  single  happy 
paragraph,  nor  born  of  one  fortunate  speech. 
He  is  to  live  in  the  public  eye  through  a 
long  period  of  time,  and  he  must  deal  temper 
ately,  forcibly,  persuasively,  wisely,  with  a  va 
riety  of  questions  touching  the  public  interests 
or  relating  to  the  public  welfare.  All  these 
conditions,  and  whatever  else  may  be  demanded 


THE  STATESMAN.  89 

of   the   orator,  were    fully  met   in    Mr.  Webster's 
career. 

"Mr.  Webster  was  great  in  intellect,  majestic  in 
his   person,  great  in  his  friendships,  great  in  his 

-  enmities. 

™  His  fame  rests  upon  the  intellectual  forces  that 
he  possessed,  and  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  uses 
to  which  they  were  applied.  A  public  man  can 
not  choose  his  career.  He  must  deal  with  the 
questions  of  his  own  generation.  It  was  Mr. 
Webster's  fortune  to  be  called  to  the  study  and 

'  discussion  of  a  new  Constitution  framed  for  a  new 
people.  In  the  main  his  views  have  been  sustained 
by  judicial  decisions  and  sanctioned  by  the  course 

A/  of  political  events. 

/  The  virtue  of  a  written  constitution  is  in  the 
interpretation  given  to  it.  Mr.  Webster  spoke  for 
national  life,  for  national  power,  for  public  honor, 
for  public  virtue. 

tHis  views  of  the  Constitution  are  to  be  consid- 
•ed  by  all  who  shall  study  that  Constitution  and 
by  all  who  are  called  to  interpret  it.     He  has  thus 
Abecome  a  worker  in  all  the  future  of  the  republic. 
V      The  two  great  orators  of  antiquity  pleaded  the 
cause  of   dying   states,  but  it  was  Mr.  Webster's 
better  fortune  to  aid  in  giving  form  and  character 
to  a  young  and  growing  nation. 


PRESIDENT    LINCOLN. 

WHEN  Anson  Burlingame  was  in  this  country 
the  last  time,  he  gave  me  an  account  of,  his  life 
in  China,  his  relations  with  the  principal  person 
ages  there,  and  said,  finally :  "  When  I  die  they 
will  erect  monuments  and  temples  to  my  memory. 
However  much  I  may  now  protest,  they  will  do 
that."  This,  we  are  told,  the  people  and  Govern 
ment  of  China  have  done. 

Gratitude  to  public  benefactors  is  the  common 
sentiment  of  mankind.  It  has  found  expression 
in  every  age ;  it  finds  expression  in  every  condi 
tion  of  society.  Monuments  and  temples  seem  to 
belong  to  the  age  of  art  rather  than  to  the  age 
of  letters;  but  reflection  teaches  us  that  letters 
can  not  fully  express  the  obligations  of  the  learned 
even,  to  their  chief  benefactors,  and  only  in  a  less 
degree  can  epitaphs,  essays,  and  histories  satisfy 
those  who  have  not  the  opportunity  and  culture 
to  read  and  understand  them.  Moreover,  monu 
ments  and  temples  in  honor  of  the  dead  express 
the  sentiments  of  their  contemporaries  who  sur- 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.         91 

vive ;  and  the  sentiments  of  contemporaries,  when 
freed  from  passion,  crystallize,  usually,  into  opinion 
—the  fixed,  continuing  opinion  of  mankind.  Na 
poleon  must  ever  remain  great ;  Washington,  good 
and  great ;  Burke,  the  first  of  English  orators ; 
the  younger  Pitt,  the  chief  of  English  statesmen ; 
and  Henry  VIII,  a  dark  character  in  British  his 
tory.  Time  and  reflection,  the  competing  fame 
of  new  and  illustrious  men,  the  antiquarian  and 
the  critic,  may  modify  the  first-formed  opinion, 
but  seldom  or  never  is  it  changed.  The  judg 
ment  rendered  at  the  grave  is  a  just  judgment 
usually,  but  whether  so  or  not  it  is  not  often 
disturbed. 

The  fame  of  noble  men  is  at  once  the  most 
enduring  and  the  most  valuable  public  posses 
sion.  Of  the  distant  past  it  is  all  of  value  that 
remains ;  and  of  the  recent  past,  the  verdant 
fields,  the  villages,  cities,  and  institutions  of  cult 
ure  and  government  are  only  monuments  which 
men  of  that  past  have  reared  to  their  own  fame. 
History  is  but  the  account  of  men :  the  earth, 
even,  is  but  a  mighty  theatre  on  which  human 
actors,  great  and  small,  have  played  their  parts. 

Superior  talents  and  favoring  circumstances 
have  secured  for  a  few  persons  that  special  recog 
nition  called  immortality ;  that  is,  a  knowledge  of 

qualities   and    actions  attributed    to  an    individual 

7 


92 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 


whose  name  is  preserved  and  transmitted,  with  that 
knowledge,  from  one  generation  to  another.  This 
immortality  may  be  nothing  to  the  dead,  but  the 
record  furnishes  examples  and  inspiring  facts, 
especially  for  the  young,  by  which  they  are  en 
couraged  and  stimulated  to  lead  lives  worthy  of 
the  illustrious  men  of  the  past.  Herein  is  the 
value,  and  the  chief  value,  of  monuments,  temples, 
histories,  and  panegyrics.  If  the  highest  use  of 
sinners  is,  by  their  evil  lives  and  bad  examples, 
to  keep  saints  to  their  duty,  so  it  is  also  that  the 
immortality  accorded  to  those  who  were  scourges 
rather  than  benefactors  serves  as  a  warning  to 
men  who  strive  to  write  their  names  upon  the 
page  of  history.  But  the  world  really  cherishes 
only  the  memory  of  those  who  were  good  as  well 
as  great,  and  hence  it  is  the  effort  of  panegyrists 
and  hero-worshipers  to  place  their  idols  in  that 
attitude  before  mankind.  The  immortal  few  are 
those  who  have  identified  themselves  with  con 
tests  and  principles  in  which  men  of  all  times  are 
interested ;  or  who  have  so  expressed  the  wish  or 
thought  or  purpose  of  mankind  that  their  words 
both  enlighten  and  satisfy  the  thoughtful  of  every 
age.  When  we  consider  how  much  is  demanded 
of  aspirants  for  lasting  fame,  we  can  understand 
the  statement  that  that  century  is  rich  which  adds 
more  than  one  name  to  the  short  list  of  persons 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.         93 

who,  in  an  historical  sense,  are  immortal.  In  that 
sense  those  only  are  immortal  whose  fame  passes 
beyond  the  country,  beyond  the  race,  beyond  the 
language,  beyond  the  century,  and  far  outspreads 
all  knowledge  of  the  details  of  local  and  national 
history. 

The  empire  of  Japan  sent  accredited  to  the 
United  States,  as  its  first  minister  resident,  Ari 
Nori  Mori,  a  young  man  of  extraordinary  ability, 
and  then  only  twenty-four  years  of  age.  A  few 
months  before  Japan  was  opened  to  intercourse 
with  other  nations,  an  elder  brother  of  Mori  lived 
for  a  time  as  a  student  at  Jeddo,  the  capital  of 
the  empire.  Upon  his  return  to  his  home  in  the 
country  he  informed  the  family  that  he  had  heard 
of  a  new  and  distant  nation  of  which  Washing 
ton,  the  greatest  and  best  of  men,  was  the  founder, 
savior,  and  father.  Beyond  this  he  had  heard 
little  of  the  country  or  the  man,  but  this  brief 
statement  so  inspired  the  younger  brother  to  know 
more  of  the  man  and  of  the  country,  that  he  re- 
solved  to  leave  his  native  land  without  delay,  and 
in  disobedience  both  to  parental  rule  and  public 
law.  In  this  single  fact  we  see  what  fame  is  in 
its  largest  sense,  and  we  realize  also  the  power 
of  a  single  character  to  influence  others,  even 
where  there  is  no  tie  of  country,  of  language,  of 
race,  or  any  except  that  which  gives  unity  to  the 


94 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 


whole  family  of  man.  If,  then,  the  acquisition  of 
fame  in  a  large  sense  be  so  difficult,  is  it  wise 
thus  to  present  the  subject  to  the  young?  May 
they  not  be  deterred  from  those  manly  efforts 
which  are  the  prerequisites  of  success?  I  answer, 
Fame  is  not  a  proper  object  of  human  effort,  and 
its  pursuit  is  the  most  unwise  of  human  under 
takings.  I  am  not  now  moralizing ;  I  am  trying 
to  state  the  account  as  a  worldly  transaction. 
Moreover,  there  is  a  distinction  between  the  fame 
of  which  I  have  spoken  and  contemporaneous 
recognition  of  one's  capacity  and  fitness  to  per 
form  important  private  or  public  service.  This 
is  reputation  rather  than  fame,  and  it  may  well 
be  sought  by  honorable  effort,  and  it  should  be 
prized  by  every  one  as  an  object  of  virtuous  am 
bition.  Success,  however,  is  not  so  often  gained 
by  direct  effort  as  by  careful,  systematic,  thorough 
preparation  for  duty.  The  world  is  not  so  loaded 
with  genius,  nor  even  with  talent,  that  opportu 
nities  are  wanting  for  all  those  who  have  capacity 
for  public  service. 

Mr.  Bancroft  gave  voice  to  the  considerate 
judgment  of  mankind  when,  in  conversation,  he 
said,  "  Beyond  question,  General  Washington,  in 
tellectually,  is  the  first  of  Americans."  If  this 
statement  be  open  to  question,  the  question  springs 
from  the  limitation,  for  beyond  doubt  Washington 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.         95 

is  the  first  of  Americans.  His  pre-eminence,  his 
greatness,  appear  in  the  fact  that  his  faculties  and 
powers  were  so  fully  developed,  so  evenly  ad 
justed  and  nicely  balanced  that,  in  all  the  various 
and  difficult  duties  of  military  and  civil  life,  he 
never  for  an  instant  failed  to  meet  the  demand 
which  his  position  and  the  attendant  circum 
stances  made  upon  him.  This  was  the  opinion 
of  his  contemporaries.  His  pre-eminence  was  felt 
and  recognized  by  the  leaders  of  the  savage  tribes 
of  America,  by  the  most  sagacious  statesmen  and 
wisest  observers  in  foreign  lands,  and  by  all  of 
his  countrymen  who  were  able  to  escape  the  in 
fluence  of  passion  and  to  consider  passing  events 
in  the  light  of  pure  reason. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Washington  that  he  was  the 
first  great  military  chief  who  did  not  exhibit  the 
military  spirit ;  and  in  this  he  has  given  to  his 
country  an  example  and  a  rule  of  the  highest 
value.  The  problem  of  republics  is  to  develop 
military  capacity  without  fostering  the  military 
spirit.  This  Washington  did  in  himself,  and  this 
also  his  country  has  done.  The  zeal  of  the  young 
men  of  the  republic  to  enter  the  military  service 
for  the  defense  of  the  Union,  and  the  satisfaction 
with  which  they  accepted  peace  and  returned  to 
the  employments  of  peace,  all  in  obedience  to  the 
example  of  Washington,  are  his  highest  praise. 


96  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

Washington  was  also  an  illustration  of  the 
axiom  in  government  that  the  faculties  and  quali 
ties  essential  to  a  military  leader  are  the  highest 
endowments  of  a  ruler  in  time  of  peace ;  and  the 
instincts  of  men  are  in  harmony  with  this  historic 
and  philosophic  truth.  The  time  that  has  passed 
since  the  public  career  and  natural  life  of  Wash 
ington  ended  has  not  dimmed  the  luster  of  his 
fame,  nor  qualified  in  the  least  that  general  judg 
ment  on  which  he  was  raised  to  an  equality  with 
the  most  renowned  personages  of  ancient  and 
modern  times. 

With  this  estimate,  not  an  unusual  nor  an  exag 
gerated  estimate,  I  venture  to  claim  for  Abraham 
Lincoln  the  place  next  to  Washington,  whether  we 
have  regard  to  private  character,  to  intellectual 
qualities,  to  public  services,  or  to  the  weight  of 
obligation  laid  upon  the  country  and  upon  man 
kind.  Between  Washington  and  Lincoln  there 
were  two  full  generations  of  men ;  but,  of  them 
all,  I  see  not  one  who  can  be  compared  with 
either. 

Submitting  this  opinion  in  advance  of  all  evi 
dence,  I  proceed  to  deal  with  those  qualities,  op 
portunities,  characteristics,  and  services  on  which 
Lincoln's  claim  rests  for  the  broad  and  most  en 
during  fame  of  which  I  have  spoken.  We  are 
attracted  naturally  by  the  career  of  a  man  who 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.         97 

has  passed  from  the  humblest  condition  in  early 
life  to  stations  of  honor  and  fame  in  maturer  years. 
With  Lincoln  this  space  was  the  broadest  possible 
in  civilized  life.  His  childhood  was  spent  in  a 
cabin  upon  a  mud  floor,  and  his  youth  and  early 
manhood  were  checkered  with  more  than  the  usual 
share  of  vicissitudes  and  disappointments.  The 
chief  blessing  of  his  early  life  was  his  step-mother, 
Sally  Bush,  who,  by  her  affectionate  treatment  and 
wise  conduct,  did  much  to  elevate  the  character 
of  the  class  of  women  to  which  she  belonged.  His 
opportunities  for  training  in  the  schools  were  few, 
and  his  hours  of  study  were  limited.  The  books 
that  he  could  obtain  were  read  and  re-read,  and  a 
grammar  and  geometry  were  his  constant  com 
panions  for  a  time ;  but  his  means  of  education 
bore  no  logical  relation  to  the  position  he  finally 
reached  as  a  thinker,  writer,  and  speaker.  Lincoln 
is  a  witness  for  the  man  William  Shakespeare 
against  those  hostile  and  illogical  critics  who  deny 
to  him  the  authorship  of  the  plays  that  bear  his 
name,  because  they  can  not  comprehend  the  way 
of  reaching  such  results  without  the  aid  of  books, 
teachers,  and  universities.  When  they  show  simi 
lar  results  reached  by  the  aid  of  books,  teachers, 
and  universities,  or  even  by  their  aid  chiefly,  they 
will  then  have  one  fact  tending  to  prove  that 
such  results  can  not  be  reached  without  such 


98  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

aids ;  but  in  the  absence  of  the  proof  we  must 
accept  Shakespeare  and  Lincoln,  and  confess  our 
ignorance  of  the  processes  by  which  their  great 
ness  was  attained. 

jBooksv  schools,  and  universities  are  helps  to 
all,  and  they  are  needed  by  each  and  all  in  the 
ratio  of  the  absence  of  natural  capacity.  By  the 
processes  of  reason  employed  to  show  that  Shake 
speare  did  not  write  "  Hamlet,"  it  may  be  proved 
that  Lincoln  did  not  compose  the  speech  which 
he  pronounced  at  Gettysburg.  The  parallel  be 
tween  Shakespeare  and  Lincoln  is  good  to  this 
extent.  The  products  of  the  pen  of  Lincoln  im 
ply  a  degree  of  culture  in  schools  which  he  never 
had,  and  a  process  of  reasoning  upon  that  impli 
cation  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  not 
the  author  of  what  bears  his  name.  We  know 
that  this  conclusion  would  be  false,  and  we  may 
therefore  question  the  soundness  of  a  similar  pro 
cess  of  reasoning  in  the  case  of  Shakespeare. 

The  world  gives  too  much  credit  to  self-made 
men.  Not  much  is  due  to  those  who  are  so 
largely  endowed  by  Nature  that  they  at  once 
outrun  their  contemporaries  who  are  always  on 
the  crutches  of  books  and  authorities,  and  but  a 
little  more  is  due  to  the  larger  class  who,  in  iso 
lation  and  privation,  acquire  the  knowledge  that 
is  gained,  usually,  only  in  the  schools.  In  the 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.         99 

end,  however,  we  judge  the  man  as  a  whole  and 
as  a  result,  for  there  is  no  trustworthy  analysis 
by  which  we  can  decide  how  much  is  due  to 
Nature,  how  much  to  personal  effort,  and  how 
much  to  circumstances.  Of  all  the  self-made  men 
of  America,  Lincoln  owed  least  to  books,  schools, 
and  society.  Washington  owed  much  to  these, 
and  all  liis  self-assertion,  which  was  considerable, 
in  society,  in  the  army,  and  in  civil  affairs,  was 
the  assertion  of  a  trained  man.  Lincoln  asserted 
nothing  but  his  capacity,  when  it  was  his  duty,  to 
decide  what  was  wise  and  what  was  right.  He 
claimed  nothing  for  himself,  in  his  personal  char 
acter,  in  the  nature  of  deference  from  others,  and 
too  little,  perhaps,  for  the  great  office  he  held. 
The  schools  create  nothing ;  they  only  bring  out 
what  is ;  but,  as  long  as  the  mass  of  mankind 
think  otherwise,  an  untrained  person  like  Lincoln 
has  an  immense  advantage  over  the  scholar  in 
the  contest  for  immortality.  In  this  particular, 
however,  the  instincts  of  men  have  a  large  share 
of  wisdom  in  them.  When  we  speak  of  human 
greatness  we  mean  natural,  innate  faculty  and 
power.  We  distinguish  the  gift  of  God  from  the 
culture  of  the  schools.  The  unlearned  give  the 
schools  too  much  credit  in  the  work  of  developing 
power  and  forming  character;  the  learned,  per 
haps,  give  them  too  little.  But,  whether  judged 


I0o  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

by  the  learned  or  the  unlearned,  Lincoln  is  the 
most  commanding  figure  in  the  ranks  of  self-made 
men  which  America  has  yet  produced. 

Mr.  Lincoln  possessed  the  almost  divine  fac 
ulty  of  interpreting  the  will  of  the  people  with 
out  any  expression  by  them.  We  often  hear  of 
the  influence  of  the  atmosphere  of  Washington 
upon  the  public  men  residing  there.  It  never 
affected  him.  He  was  of  all  men  most  independ 
ent  of  locality  and  social  influences.  He  was 
wholly  self-contained  in  all  that  concerned  his 
opinions  upon  public  questions  and  in  all  his 
judgments  of  the  popular  will.  Conditions  being 
given,  he  could  anticipate  the  popular  will  and 
conduct.  When  the  proceedings  of  the  conven 
tion  of  dissenting  Republicans,  which  assembled 
at  Cleveland  in  1864,  were  mentioned  to  him  and 
his  opinion  sought,  he  told  the  story  of  two  fresh 
Irishmen  who  attempted  to  find  a  tree-toad  that 
they  heard  in  the  forest,  and  how,  after  a  fruitless 
hunt,  one  of  them  consoled  himself  and  his  com 
panion  with  the  expression,  "  An*  faith  it  was  noth 
ing  but  a  noise." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  goodness  of  nature  was  bound 
less.  In  childhood  it  showed  itself  in  unfeigned 
aversion  to  every  form  of  cruelty  to  animal  life. 
When  he  was  President  it  found  expression  in 
that  memorable  letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby,  of  Boston, 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBER  ATO*R 

who  had  given,  irrevocably  given,  as  was  then 
supposed,  five  sons  to  the  country.  The  letter 
was  dated  November  21,  1864,  before  the  excite 
ment  of  his  second  election  was  over: 

"  DEAR  MADAM  :  I  have  been  shown,  in  the 
files  of  the  War  Department,  a  statement,  of  the 
Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts,  that  you  are 
the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously 
on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and  fruit 
less  must  be  any  words  of  mine  which  should 
attempt  to  beguile  you  from  a  loss  so  over 
whelming.  But  I  can  not  refrain  from  tendering 
to  you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the 
thanks  of  the  republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray 
that  our  heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  anguish 
of  your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cher 
ished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  sol 
emn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so 
costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
"  Yours,  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"  To  Mrs.  Bixby,  Boston,  Massachusetts." 

I  imagine  that  all  history  and  all  literature 
may  be  searched,  and  in  vain,  for  a  funereal  tribute 
so  touching,  so  comprehensive,  so  fortunate  in 
expression  as  this. 

If  we  have  been  moved  to  laughter  by  a  sim- 


102  ,  PRESIDENT;  LINCOLN 

pie  story,  and  to  tears  by  a  pathetic  strain,  we 
can  understand  what  Lincoln  was  to  all,  and  espe 
cially  to  the  common  people  who  were  his  fellows 
in  everything  except  his  greatness,  when  he  moved, 
spoke,  and  acted  among  them.  It  would  be  a 
reflection  upon  the  human  race  if  men  did  not 
recognize  something  worthy  of  enduring  fame  in 
one  whose  kindness  and  sympathy  were  so  com 
prehensive  as  to  include  the  insect  on  the  one 
side  and  the  noble,  but  bereaved,  mother  on  the 
other.  To  the  soldiers,  General  Thomas  was  "  Old 
Holdfast,"  General  Hooker  was  "  Fighting  Joe," 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  "  Father  Abraham."  These 
names  were  due  to  personal  qualities  which  the 
soldiers  observed,  admired,  and  applauded. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  mirth-making,  genial,  melan 
choly  man.  By  these  characteristics  he  enlisted 
sympathy  for  himself  at  once,  while  his  moral 
qualities  and  intellectual  pre-eminence  commanded 
respect.  Mr.  Lincoln's  wit  and  mirth  will  give  him 
a  passport  to  the  thoughts  and  hearts  of  millions 
who  would  take  no  interest  in  the  sterner  and 
more  practical  parts  of  his  character.  He  used 
his  faculties  for  mirth  and  wit  to  relieve  the  mel 
ancholy  of  his  life,  to  parry  unwelcome  inquiries, 
and,  in  the  debates  of  politics  and  the  bar,  to 
worry  his  opponents.  In  debate  he  often  so  com 
bined  wit,  satire,  and  statement,  that  his  opponent 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        103 

at  once  appeared  ridiculous  and  illogical.  Mr. 
Douglas  was  often  the  victim  of  these  sallies  in 
the  great  debate  for  the  Senate  before  the  people 
of  Illinois,  and  before  the  people  of  the  country, 
in  the  year  1858.  Douglas  constantly  asserted 
that  abolition  would  be  followed  by  amalgama 
tion,  and  that  the  Republican  party  designed  to 
repeal  the  laws  of  Illinois  which  prohibited  the 
marriage  of  blacks  and  whites.  This  was  a  for 
midable  appeal,  to  the  prejudices  of  the  people 
of  Southern  Illinois  especially.  "  I  protest  now 
and  forever,"  said  Lincoln,  "  against  that  counter 
feit  logic  which  presumes  that  because  I  did  not 
want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  do,  necessari 
ly,  want  her  for  a  wife.  I  have  never  had  the 
least  apprehension  that  I  or  my  friends  would 
marry  negroes  if  there  were  no  law  to  keep  them 
from  it ;  but,  as  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends 
seem  to  be  in  great  apprehension  that  they  might, 
if  there  were  no  law  to  keep  them  from  it,  I  give 
him  the  most  solemn  pledge  that  I  will,  to  the 
very  last,  stand  by  the  law  of  this  State,  which 
forbids  the  marrying  of  white  people  with  ne 
groes."  Thus,  in  two  sentences,  did  Mr.  Lincoln 
overthrow  Douglas  in  his  logic,  and  render  him 
ridiculous  in  his  position. 

Douglas  claimed  special   credit   for   the  defeat 
of  the  Lecompton  bill,  although  five  sixths  of  the 


104  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

votes  were  given  by  the  Republican  party.  Said 
Lincoln :  "  Why  is  he  entitled  to  more  credit  than 
others  for  the  performance  of  that  good  act,  unless 
there  was  something  in  the  antecedents  of  the  Re 
publicans  that  might  induce  every  one  to  expect 
them  to  join  in  that  good  work,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  leading  them  to  doubt  that  he  would  ?  Does 
he  place  his  superior  claim  to  credit  on  the  ground 
that  he  performed  a  good  act  which  wras  never 
expected  of  him  ? "  He  then  gave  Mr.  Douglas 
the  benefit  of  a  specific  application  of  the  parable 
of  the  lost  sheep. 

In  the  last  debate  at  Alton,  October  15,  1858, 
Mr.  Douglas  proceeded  to  show  that  Buchanan 
was  guilty  of  gross  inconsistencies  of  position. 
Lincoln  did  not  defend  Buchanan,  but,  after  he 
had  stated  the  fact  that  Douglas  had  been  on 
both  sides  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  he  added : 
"  I  want  to  know  if  Buchanan  has  not  as  much 
right  to  be  inconsistent  as  Douglas  has?  Has 
Douglas  the  exclusive  right  in  this  country  of 
being  on  all  sides  of  all  questions  ?  Is  nobody  al 
lowed  that  high  privilege  but  himself  ?  Is  he  to 
have  an  entire  monopoly  on  that  subject  ? " 

There  are  three  methods  in  debate  of  sustain 
ing  and  enforcing  opinions,  and  the  faculty  and 
facility  of  using  these  several  methods  are  the 
tests  of  intellectual  quality  in  writers  and  speak- 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        105 

ers.  First,  and  lowest  intellectually,  are  those  who 
rely  upon  authority.  They  gather  and  marshal 
the  sayings  of  their  predecessors,  and  ask  their 
hearers  and  readers  to  indorse  the  positions  taken, 
not  because  they  are  reasonable  and  right  under 
the  process  of  demonstration,  but  because  many 
persons  in  other  times  have  thought  them  to  be 
right  and  reasonable.  As  this  is  the  work  of  the 
mere  student,  and  does  not  imply  either  philoso 
phy  or  the  faculty  of  reasoning,  those  who  rely 
exclusively  upon  authority  are  in  the  third  class 
of  intellectual  men.  Next,  and  of  a  much  higher 
order,  are  the  writers  and  speakers  who  state  the 
facts  of  a  case,  apply  settled  principles  to  them, 
and  by  sound  processes  of  reasoning  maintain  the 
positions  taken.  But  high  above  all  are  the  men 
who,  by  statement  pure  and  simple,  or  by  state 
ment  argumentative,  carry  conviction  to  thought 
ful  minds.  Unquestionably  Mr.  Lincoln  belongs 
to  this  class.  Those  who  remember  Douglas's 
theory  in  regard  to  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  which 
he  sometimes  dignified  by  calling  it  the  "  sacred 
right  of  self-government,"  will  appreciate  the  force 
of  Lincoln's  statement  of  the  scheme  in  these 
words :  "  The  phrase,  '  sacred  right  of  self-govern 
ment,'  though  expressive  of  the  only  rightful  basis 
of  any  government,  was  so  perverted  in  the  at 
tempted  use  of  it  as  to  amount  to  just  this:  That 


106  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

if  any  one  man  choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third 
man  shall  be  allowed  to  object'' 

In  the  field  of  argumentative  statement,  Mr. 
Webster,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  had  had  no 
rival  in  America;  but  he  has  left  nothing-  more 
exact,  explicit,  and  convincing  than  this  extract 
from  Lincoln's  first  speech  of  the  great  debate. 
Here  is  a  statement  in  less  than  twenty  words, 
If  any  one  man  choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third 
man  shall  be  allowed  to  object,  which  embodies  the 
substance  of  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of  Dred  Scott, 
the  theory  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  and  ex 
poses  the  sophistry  which  Douglas  had  woven 
into  his  arguments  on  "  squatter  sovereignty." 

Douglas  constantly  appealed  to  the  prejudices 
of  the  people,  and  arrayed  them  against  the  doc 
trine  of  negro  equality.  Lincoln,  in  reply,  after 
asserting  their  equality  under  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  added,  "  In  the  right  to  eat  the 
bread,  without  the  leave  of  anybody  else,  which 
his  own  hand  earns,  he  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal 
of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of  every  living 
man."  Douglas  often  said — and  he  commanded 
the  cheers  of  his  supporters  when  he  said  it — "  I 
do  not  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down."  In  his  final  speech  at  Alton,  Lincoln  re 
viewed  the  history  of  the  churches  and  of  the 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR. 


107 


Government  in  connection  \vith  slavery,  and  he 
then  asked :  "  Is  it  not  a  false  statesmanship  that 
undertakes  to  build  up  a  system  of  policy  upon 
the  basis  of  caring  nothing  about  the  very  thing 
that  everybody  does  care  the  most  about?"  He 
then,  in  the  same  speech,  assailed  Douglas's  posi 
tion  in  an  argument,  which  is  but  a  series  of  state 
ments,  and,  as  a  whole,  it  is,  in  its  logic  and  moral 
sentiment,  the  equal  of  anything  in  the  language : 
"  He  may  say  he  doesn't  care  whether  an  indif 
ferent  thing  is  voted  up  or  down,  but  he  must 
logically  have  a  choice  between  a  right  thing 
and  a  wrong  thing.  He  contends  that  whatever 
community  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to  have  them. 
So  they  have,  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But,  if  it  is 
a  wrong,  he  can  not  say  people  have  a  right  to 
do  wrong.  He  says  that,  upon  the  score  of  equal 
ity,  slaves  should  be  allowed  to  go  into  a  new 
Territory  like  other  property.  This  is  strictly 
logical,  if  there  is  no  difference  between  it  and 
other  property.  If  it  and  other  property  are 
equal,  his  argument  is  entirely  logical.  But,  if 
you  insist  that  one  is  wrong  and  the  other  right, 
there  is  no  use  to  institute  a  comparison  between 
right  and  wrong.  You  may  turn  over  everything 
in  the  Democratic  policy,  from  beginning  to  end 
— whether  in  the  shape  it  takes  on  the  statute- 
book,  in  the  shape  it  takes  in  the  Dred  Scott  de- 


I08  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

cision,  in  the  shape  it  takes  in  conversation,  or  in 
the  shape  it  takes  in  short,  maxim-like  arguments 
— it  everywhere  carefully  excludes  the  idea  that 
there  is  anything  wrong  in  it.  That  is  the  real 
issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will  continue  in  this 
country  when  these  poor  tongues  of  Judge  Douglas 
and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the  eternal  strug 
gle  between  these  two  principles,  right  and  wrong, 
throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two  princi 
ples  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  begin 
ning  of  time,  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle. 
The  one  is  the  common  right  of  humanity,  and 
the  other  the  divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the 
same  principle  in  whatever  shape  it  develops  it 
self.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that  says,  *  You  work 
and  toil  and  earn  bread,  and  I'll  eat  it.'  No  mat 
ter  in  what  shape  it  comes,  whether  from  the 
mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks  to  bestride  the  people 
of  his  own  nation  and  live  by  the  fruit  of  their 
labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology  for 
enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical 
principle." 

To  the  Democrat  who  admitted  that  slavery 
was  a  wrong,  Mr.  Lincoln  addressed  himself  thus : 
"  You  never  treat  it  as  a  wrong.  You  must  not 
say  anything  about  it  in  the  free  States,  because 
it  is  not  here.  You  must  not  say  anything  about 
it  in  the  slave  States,  because  it  is  there.  You 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        109 

must  not  say  anything  about  it  in  the  pulpit,  be 
cause  that  is  religion,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  You  must  not  say  anything  about  it  in  poli 
tics,  because  that  will  disturb  the  security  of  my 
place.  There  is  no  place  to  talk  about  it  as  being 
wrong,  although  you  say  yourself  it  is  a  wrong." 
Among  the  rude  people  with  whom  Lincoln 
passed  his  youth  and  early  manhood,  his  personal 
courage  was  often  tested,  and  usually  in  support 
of  the  rights  or  pretensions  of  others,  or  in  behalf 
of  the  weak,  the  wronged,  or  the  dependent.  In 
later  years  his  moral  characteristics  were  subjected 
to  tests  equally  severe.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  an 
agitator  like  Garrison,  Phillips,  and  O'Connell,  and 
as  a  reformer  he  belonged  to  the  class  of  moder 
ate  men,  such  as  Peel  and  Gladstone ;  but  in  no 
condition  did  he  ever  confound  right  with  wrong, 
or  speak  of  injustice  with  bated  breath.  His  first 
printed  paper  was  a  plea  for  temperance ;  and  his 
second,  a  eulogy  upon  the  Union.  His  positive, 
personal  hostility  to  slavery  goes  back  to  the  year 
1831,  when  he  arrived  at  New  Orleans  as  a  la 
borer  upon  a  flat-boat.  "  There  it  was,"  says 
Hanks,  his  companion,  "  we  saw  negroes  chained, 
maltreated,  whipped,  and  scourged.  Lincoln  saw 
it,  said  nothing  much,  was  silent  from  feeling,  was 
sad,  looked  bad,  felt  bad,  was  thoughtful  and  ab 
stracted.  I  can  say,  knowing  it,  that  it  was  on 


1 10  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

this  trip  that  he  formed  his  opinion  of  slavery. 
It  run  its  iron  in  him  then  and  there,  May,  1831. 
I  have  heard  him  say  so  often  and  often."  In 
1850,  he  said  to  his  partner,  Mr.  Stuart:  "The 
time  will  come  when  we  must  all  be  Democrats 
or  abolitionists.  When  that  time  comes,  my  mind 
is  made  up.  The  slavery  question  can't  be  com 
promised."  In  1855,  he  said:  "  Our  progress  in 
degeneracy  appears  to  me  to  be  pretty  rapid.  As 
a  nation  we  began  by  declaring  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  We  now  practically  read  it  all  men 
are  created  equal  except  negroes."  In  his  Ottawa 
speech  of  1858,  he  read  an  extract  from  his  speech 
at  Peoria,  made  in  1854,  in  these  words:  "This 
declared  indifference,  but  as  I  must  think  real  zeal 
for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but  hate.  I 
hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slav 
ery  itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  re 
publican  example  of  its  just  influence  in  the  world, 
enables  the  enemies  of  free  institutions  with  plausi 
bility  to  taunt  us  as  hypocrites,  causes  the  real 
friends  of  freedom  to  doubt  our  sincerity,  and, 
especially,  because  it  forces  so  many  really  good 
men  among  ourselves  into  an  open  war  with  the 
very  fundamental  principles  of  civil  liberty,  criti 
cising  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in 
sisting  that  there  is  no  right  principle  of  action 
but  self-interest." 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        m 

These  extracts  prepare  the  reader  for  the  most 
important  utterance  by  Mr.  Lincoln  previous  to 
his  elevation  to  the  presidency. 

The  Republican  Convention  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  met  at  Springfield,  June  17,  1858,  and 
nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  for  the  seat  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  then  held  by  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  This  action  was  expected,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  prepared  himself  to  accept  the  nomi 
nation  in  a  speech  which  he  foresaw  would  be 
the  pivot  of  the  debate  with  Judge  Douglas.  That 
speech  he  submitted  to  a  council  of  at  least  twelve 
of  his  personal  and  political  friends,  all  of  whom 
advised  him  to  omit  or  to  change  materially  the 
first  paragraph.  This  Mr.  Lincoln  refused  to  do, 
even  when  challenged  by  the  opinion  that  it 
would  cost  him  his  seat  in  the  Senate.  It  did 
cost  him  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  but  the  speech 
would  have  been  delivered  had  he  foreseen  that 
it  would  cost  him  much  more.  After  its  delivery, 
and  while  the  canvass  was  going  on,  he  said  to 
his  friends ;  "  You  ma)7  think  that  speech  wras  a 
mistake,  but  I  never  have  believed  it  was,  and 
you  will  see  the  day  when  you  will  consider  it 
was  the  wisest  thing  I  ever  said.  If  I  had  to 
draw  a  pen  across  and  erase  my  whole  life  from 
existence,  and  I  had  one  poor  gift  or  choice  left 
as  to  what  I  should  save  from  the  wreck,  I  should 


1 1 2  PRESIDENT  LIXCOLN 

choose  that  speech,  and  leave  it  to  the  world  un 
erased."  These  are  the  words  that  he  prized  so 
highly,  and  which,  for  the  time,  cost  him  so  much : 
"  If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are  and  whither 
we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to 
do  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the 
fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the 
avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  putting 
an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation 
of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not 
ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented.  In  my 
opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have 
been  reached  and  passed.  '  A  house  divided 
against  itself  can  not  stand.'  .  I  believe  this  Gov 
ernment  can  not  endure  permanently,  half  slave 
and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be 
dissolved ;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall ;  but 
I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will 
become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other ;  either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ulti 
mate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  for 
ward,  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 
To  the  pro-slavery,  sensitive,  prejudiced,  Union- 
saving  classes  it  was  not  difficult  to  interpret  this 
paragraph  in  a  highly  offensive  sense.  The  phrase, 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        113 

"  A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand,"  was 
interpreted  as  a  declaration  against  the  Union.  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  declaration  of  the  existence  of  the 
irrepressible  conflict. 

Douglas  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to 
excite  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  and  thus  se 
cured  his  re-election  to  the  Senate.  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  a  higher  object :  he  sought  to  change  public 
sentiment.  (  No  man  ever  lived  who  better  under 
stood  the  means  of  affecting  public  sentiment,  or 
more  highly  appreciated  its  power  and  impor 
tance.'  At  Ottawa  he  said  :  "  In  this  and  like  com 
munities  public  sentiment  is  everything.  With 
public  sentiment  nothing  can  fail ;  without  it  noth 
ing  can  succeed.  Consequently,  he  who  molds 
public  sentiment  goes  deeper  than  he  who  enacts 
statutes  or  pronounces  decisions.  He  makes  stat 
utes  and  decisions  possible  or  impossible  to  be 
executed." 

I  have  quoted  thus  freely  from  Mr.  Lincoln, 
that  we  may  appreciate  his  moral  courage ;  that 
we  may  rest  in  the  opinion  that  he  was  an  early, 
constant,  consistent  advocate  of  human  liberty, 
and  that  we  might  enjoy  the  charm  of  his  tran- 
scendently  clear  thought,  convincing  logic,  and 
power  of  statement.  When  he  became  President, 
and  was  called  to  bear  the  chief  burden  in  the 
struggle  for  liberty  and  the  Union,  he  was  never 


114 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 


dismayed  by  the  condition  of  public  affairs,  nor 
disturbed  by  apprehensions  for  his  personal  safety. 
He  was  like  a  soldier  in  the  field,  enlisted  for 
duty,  and  danger  was,  of  course,  incident  to  it. 
I  was  alone  with  Mr.  Lincoln  more  than  two 
hours  of  the  Sunday  next  after  Pope's  defeat  in 
August,  1862.  That  was  the  darkest  day  of  the 
sad  years  of  the  war.  McClellan  had  failed  upon 
the  Peninsula.  Pope's  army,  re-enforced  by  the 
remains  of  the  Army  of  the  Peninsula,  had  been 
driven  within  the  fortifications  of  Washington. 
Our  losses  of  men  had  been  enormous,  but  most 
serious  of  all  was  the  loss  of  confidence  in  com 
manders.  The  army  did  not  confide  in  Pope,  and 
the  authorities  did  not  confide  in  McClellan.  In 
that  crisis  Lincoln  surrendered  his  own  judgment 
to  the  opinion  of  the  army,  and  re-established 
McClellan  in  command.  When  the  business  to 
which  I  had  been  summoned  by  the  President 
was  over — strange  business  for  the  time :  the  ap 
pointment  of  assessors  and  collectors  of  internal 
revenue — he  was  kind  enough  to  ask  my  opinion 
as  to  the  command  of  the  army.  The  way  was 
thus  opened  for  conversation,  and  for  me  to  say 
at  the  end  that  I  thought  our  success  depended 
upon  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  To  this  he 
said :  "  You  would  not  have  it  done  now,  would 
you?  Must  we  not  wait  for  something  like  a 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        115 

victory?"  This  was  the  second  and  most  explicit 
intimation  to  me  of  his  purpose  in  regard  to  slav 
ery.  In  the  preceding  July  or  early  in  August, 
at  an  interview  upon  business  connected  with  my 
official  duties,  he  said,  "  Let  me  read  two  letters," 
and  taking  them  from  a  pigeon-hole  over  his  table 
he  proceeded  at  once  to  do  what  he  had  proposed. 
I  have  not  seen  the  letters  in  print.  His  cor 
respondent  was  a  gentleman  in  Louisiana,  who 
claimed  to  be  a  Union  man.  He  tendered  his 
advice  to  the  President  in  regard  to  the  reorgan 
ization  of  that  State,  and  he  labored  zealously  to 
impress  upon  him  the  dangers  and  evils  of  eman 
cipation.  The  reply  of  the  President  is  only  im 
portant  from  the  fact  that  when  he  came  to  that 
part  of  his  correspondent's  letter  he  used  this  ex 
pression  :  "  You  must  not  expect  me  to  give  up 
this  Government  without  playing  my  last  card." 
Emancipation  was  his  last  card.  He  waited  for 
the  time  when  two  facts  or  events  should  coincide. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  devoted  to  the  Constitution 
as  was  ever  Mr.  Webster.  In  his  view,  a  military 
necessity  was  the  only  ground  on  which  the  over 
throw  of  slavery  in  the  States  could  be  justified. 
Next  he  waited  for  a  public  sentiment  in  the 
loyal  States  not  only  demanding  emancipation  but 
giving  full  assurance  that  the  act  would  be  sus 
tained  to  the  end.  As  for  himself,  I  can  not  doubt 


Il6  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

that  he  had  contemplated  the  policy  of  eman 
cipation  for  many  months,  and  anticipated  the 
time  when  he  should  adopt  it.  At  his  inter 
view  with  the  Chicago  clergy  he  stated  the  reas 
ons  against  emancipation,  and  stated  them  so  for 
cibly  that  the  clergy  were  not  prepared  to  an 
swer  them ;  but  the  accredited  account  of  the 
interview  contains  conclusive  proof  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  then  contemplated  issuing  the  procla 
mation. 

It  may  be  remembered  by  the  reader  that  in 
the  political  campaign  of  1862,  a  prominent  leader 
of  the  People's  party,  the  late  Judge  Joel  Parker,  of 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  said  in  public  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  issued  the  proclamation  under  the  influ 
ence  of  the  loyal  Governors  who  met  at  Altoona 
in  September  of  that  year.  As  I  was  about  to 
leave  Washington  in  the  month  of  October  to 
take  part  in  the  canvass,  I  mentioned  to  the  Presi 
dent  the  fact  that  such  a  statement  had  been 
made.  He  at  once  said :  "  I  never  thought  of  the 
meeting  of  the  Governors.  The  truth  is  just  this: 
When  Lee  came  over  the  river,  I  made  a  resolu 
tion  that  if  McClellan  drove  him  back  1  would 
send  the  proclamation  after  him.  The  battle  of 
Antietam  was  fought  Wednesday,  and  until  Sat 
urday  I  could  not  find  out  whether  we  had 
gained  a  victory  or  lost  a  battle.  It  was  then  too 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        117 

late  to  issue  the  proclamation  that  day,  and  the 
fact  is  I  fixed  it  up  a  little  Sunday,  and  Monday 
I  let  them  have  it." 

Men  will  probably  entertain  different  opinions 
of  one  part  of  Lincoln's  character.  He  not  only 
possessed  the  apparently  innate  faculty  of  com 
prehending  the  tendency,  purposes,  and  opinions 
of  masses  of  men,  but  he  observed  and  measured 
with  accuracy  the  peculiarities  of  individuals  who 
were  about  him,  and  made  those  individuals,  some 
times  through  their  peculiarities  and  sometimes  in 
spite  of  them,  the  instruments  or  agents  of  his 
own  views.  Of  the  three  chief  men  in  his  Cabi 
net,  Seward,  Chase,  and  Stanton,  Mr.  Stanton  was 
the  only  one  who  never  thus  yielded  to  this  power 
of  the  President.  The  reason  was  creditable  alike 
to  the  President  and  to  Mr.  Stanton.  Mr.  Stanton 
was  frank  and  fearless  in  his  office,  devoted  to 
duty,  destitute  of  ambition,  and  uncompromising 
in  his  views  touching  emancipation  and  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion.  The  popular  sentiment 
of  the  day  made  no  impression  upon  him.  He 
was  always  ready  for  every  forward  movement, 
and  he  could  never  be  reconciled  to  a  backward 
step,  either  in  the  field  or  the  Cabinet.  It  is  no 
injustice  to  Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Chase  to  say  that 
they  had  ambitions  which,  under  some  circum 
stances,  might  disturb  the  judgment.  These  am- 


Il8  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

bitions  and  their  tendencies  could  not  escape  the 
notice  of  the  President. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  indifferent  to  those  matters  of 
government  that  were  relatively  unimportant ;  but 
he  devoted  himself  with  conscientious  diligence 
to  the  graver  questions  and  topics  of  official  duty, 
and,  in  the  first  months  of  his  administration,  at 
a  moment  of  supreme  peril,  by  his  pre-eminent 
wisdom,  of  which  there  remains  indubitable  proof, 
he  saved  the  country  from  a  foreign  war.  I  refer 
to  the  letter  of  instruction  to  Mr.  Adams,  written 
in  May,  1861,  and  relating  to  the  proclamation  of 
the  Government  of  Great  Britain  recognizing  the 
belligerent  character  of  the  Confederate  States. 

In  the  greatest  exigencies  his  power  of  judg 
ing  immediately  and  wisely  did  not  desert  him. 
On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  General 
Hooker  resigned  the  command  of  the  army.  This 
act  was  a  painful,  a  terrible  surprise  to  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  and  the  President.  Mr.  Stanton's  account  to 
me  was  this :  "  When  I  received  the  dispatch  my 
heart  sank  within  me,  and  I  was  more  depressed 
than  at  any  other  moment  of  the  war.  I  could  not 
say  that  any  other  officer  knew  General  Hooker's 
plans,  or  the  position  even  of  the  various  divisions 
of  the  army.  I  sent  for  the  President  to  come 
to  the  War  Office  at  once.  It  was  in  the  even 
ing,  but  the  President  soon  appeared.  I  handed 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        119 

him  the  dispatch.  As  he  read  it  his  face  became 
like  lead.  I  said,  «  What  shall  be  done  ? '  He 
replied,  instantly,  'Accept  his  resignation.''  In 
secret,  and  without  consulting  any  one  else,  the 
President  and  Secretary  of  War  canvassed  the 
merits  of  the  various  officers  of  the  army,  and 
decided  to  place  General  Meade  in  command.  Of 
this  decision  General  Meade  was  informed  by  a 
dispatch  sent  by  a  special  messenger,  who  reached 
his  quarters  before  the  break  of  day  the  next 
morning.  It  may  be  interesting  to  know  the 
grounds  on  which  the  President  decided  to  pro 
mote  General  Meade. 

First:  That  he  was  a  good  soldier,  if  not  a 
brilliant  one. 

Second :  That  he  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  that  State  at  that  moment  was  the  battle-field 
of  the  Union. 

Third :  The  President  apprehended  that  a  de 
mand  \vould  be  made  for  the  restoration  of  Gen 
eral  McClellan,  and  this  he  desired  to  prevent  by 
the  selection  of  a  man  who  represented  the  same 
political  opinions  in  the  army  and  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Lincoln  entertained  advanced  thoughts  and 
opinions  upon  all  worthy  topics  of  public  con 
cern  ;  indeed,  his  opinions  were  in  advance,  usu 
ally,  of  his  acts  as  a  public  man.  This  is  but 
another  mode  of  stating  the  truth,  that  he  pos- 


120  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

sessed  the  faculty  of  foreseeing  the  course  of  pub 
lic  opinion — a  faculty  essential  to  statesmen  in 
popular  governments. 

In  1853,  in  a  campaign  letter,  he  said  :  "  I  go 
for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  government  who 
assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go 
for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage 
who  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms,  by  no  means  exclud 
ing  females."  In  1854,  he  said  :  "  Labor  is  prior 
to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital  is  only 
the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed 
if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  sup 
port  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the  higher 
consideration."  In  April  of  the  same  year,  he 
said  :  "  I  am  naturally  antislavery.  If  slavery  is 
not  wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  can  not  remem 
ber  when  I  did  not  so  think  and  feel."  In  his 
last  public  utterance  he  declared  himself  in  favor 
of  extending  the  elective  franchise  to  colored 
men. 

Thus  he  died,  without  one  limitation  in  his 
expressed  opinions  of  the  rights  of  men  which 
the  historian  or  eulogist  will  desire  to  suppress 
or  to  qualify.  It  is  to  be  said  further  of  this 
many-sided  man,  and  most  opulent  in  natural 
resources,  that  he  takes  rank  with  the  first  logi 
cians  and  orators  of  every  age.  His  mastery  over 
Douglas  in  the  debate  of  1858  was  complete. 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       121 

While  President,  and  by  successive  letters,  he 
effectually  repelled  the  attacks  and  silenced  the 
criticisms  of  the  New  York  Committee,  of  which 
Erastus  Corning  was  the  head,  that  condemned 
illegal  arrests  and  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus;  of  the  Union  Committee  of  the 
State  of  Illinois,  that  proposed  to  save  the  Union 
if  slavery  could  be  saved  with  it ;  of  the  Demo 
cratic  Convention  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  that  de 
nounced  the  arrest  of  Vallandingham ;  and  of 
Horace  Greeley  himself,  when  he  complained  of 
the  policy  the  President  seemed  to  be  pursuing 
on  the  subject  of  emancipation. 

As  I  approach  my  conclusion,  I  ask  a  judg 
ment  upon  Mr.  Lincoln,  not  as  a  competitor  with 
Mr.  Douglas  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  but  as  a  competitor  for  fame  with  the  first 
orators  of  this  and  other  countries,  of  this  and 
other  ages. 

In  support  of  this  view  I  quote  the  closing 
paragraph  of  his  first  speech  in  the  canvass  of 
1858:  "Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to 
and  conducted  by  its  own  undoubted  friends, 
those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in 
the  work,  who  do  care  for  the  result.  Two  years 
ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation  mustered  over 
thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We  did  this 
under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  com- 


122  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

mon  danger,  with  every  external  circumstance 
against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and  even  hos 
tile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds, 
and  formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under 
the  constant,  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and 
pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  then  to  fal 
ter  now  ?  Now,  when  that  same  enemy  is  waver 
ing,  dissevered,  and  belligerent  ?  The  result  is 
not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail ;  if  we  stand  firm 
we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate 
or  mistakes  delay  it,  but  sooner  or  later  the  vic 
tory  is  sure  to  come."  We  all  remember  his 
simple,  earnest,  persuasive  appeals  to  the  South, 
in  his  first  inaugural  address.  At  the  end  he 
says :  "  I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies, 
but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though 
passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  cords  of  memory, 
stretching  from  every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave 
to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this 
broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union 
when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by 
the  better  angels  of  our  nature."  There  is  noth 
ing  elsewhere  in  our  literature  of  plaintive  en 
treaty  to  be  compared  with  this.  It  combines  the 
eloquence  of  the  orator  with  the  imagery  and 
inspiration  of  the  poet.  But  the  three  great  pa 
pers  on  which  Lincoln's  fame  will  be  carried 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        123 

along  the  ages  are  the  proclamation  of  emancipa 
tion,  his  oration  at  Gettysburg,  and  his  second 
inaugural  address.  The  oration  ranks  with  the 
noblest  productions  of  antiquity,  and  rivals  the 
finest  passages  of  Grattan,  Burke,  or  Webster. 
This  is  not  the  opinion  of  Americans  only,  but 
of  the  cultivated  in  other  countries,  whose  judg 
ment  anticipates  the  judgment  of  posterity. 

When  we  consider  the  place,  the  occasion,  the 
man,  and,  more  than  all,  when  we  consider  the 
oration  itself,  can  we  doubt  that  it  ranks  with 
the  first  of  American  classics  ?  That  literature  is 
immortal  which  commands  a  permanent  place  in 
the  schools  of  a  country,  and  is  there  any  com 
position  more  certain  of  that  destiny  than  Lin 
coln's  oration  at  Gettysburg  ?  "  Fourscore  and 
seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought  forth  upon 
this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty 
and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  Now,  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any 
nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long 
endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of 
that  war.  We  are  met  to  dedicate  a  portion  of 
it  as  the  final  resting-place  of  those  who  have 
given  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It 
is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should 
do  this.  But  in  a  larger  sense  we  can  not  dedi- 


124 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 


cate,  we  can  not  consecrate,  we  can  not  hallow 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead, 
who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above 
our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will 
little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here, 
but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It 
is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here 
to  the  unfinished  work  that  they  have  thus  far  so 
nobly  carried  on.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here 
dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us ; 
that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased 
devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  they  here  gave 
the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died 
in  vain ;  that  the  nation  shall,  under  God,  have  a 
new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth."  But  if  all  that  Lincoln 
said  and  was  should  fail  to  carry  his  name  and 
character  to  future  ages,  the  emancipation  of  four 
million  human  beings  by  his  single  official  act  is 
a  passport  to  all  of  immortality  that  earth  can 
give.  There  is  no  other  individual  act  performed 
by  any  person  on  this  continent  that  can  be  com 
pared  with  it.  The  Declaration  of  Independence, 
the  Constitution,  were  each  the  work  of  bodies 
of  men.  The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  in 
this  respect  stands  alone.  The  responsibility  was 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       12$ 

wholly  upon  Lincoln ;  the  glory  is  chiefly  his. 
No  one  can  now  say  whether  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  or  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was 
the  highest,  best  gift  to  the  country  and  to  man 
kind.  With  the  curse  of  slavery  in  America  there 
was  no  hope  for  republican  institutions  in  other 
countries.  In  the  presence  of  slavery  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  had  lost  its  power;  prac 
tically,  it  had  become  a  lie.  In  the  presence  of 
slavery  we  were  to  the  rest  of  mankind  and  to 
ourselves  a  nation  of  hypocrites.  The  gift  of  free 
dom  to  four  million  negroes  was  not  more  valu 
able  to  them  than  to  us  ;  and  not  more  valuable 
to  us  than  to  the  friends  of  liberty  in  other  parts 
of  the  world. 

In  these  days,  when  politicians  and  parties  are 
odious  to  many  thoughtful  and  earnest-minded 
persons,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  look  at  Mr.  Lin 
coln  as  a  politician  and  partisan.  These  he  was, 
first  of  all  and  always.  He  had  political  convic 
tions  that  were  ineradicable,  and  they  were  wholly 
partisan.  As  the  rebellion  became  formidable,  the 
Republican  party  became  the  party  of  the  Union ; 
and,  as  the  party  of  the  Union,  with  Mr.  Lincoln 
at  its  head,  it  was  from  first  to  last  the  only 
political  organization  in  the  country  that  consist 
ently,  persistently,  and  without  qualification  of 


126  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

purpose,  met,  and  in  the  end  successfully  met, 
every  demand  of  the  enemies  of  the  Government, 
whether  proffered  in  diplomatic  notes  or  on  the 
field  of  battle.  He  struggled  first  for  the  Union, 
and  then  for  the  overthrow  of  slavery  as  the  only 
formidable  enemy  of  the  Union.  These  were  his 
tests  of  political  fellowship,  and  he  carefully  ex 
cluded  from  place  every  man  who  could  not  bear 
them.  He  accepted  the  great  and  most  manifest 
lesson  of  free  governments,  that  every  wise  and 
vigorous  administration  represents  the  majority 
party,  and  that  the  best  days  of  every  free  country 
are  those  days  when  a  party  takes  and  wields 
power  by  a  popular  verdict,  and  guards  itself  at 
every  step  against  the  assaults  of  a  scrutinizing 
and  vigorous  opposition.  He  accepted  the  essen 
tial  truths  that  a  free  government  is  a  political 
organization,  and  that  the  political  opinions  of 
those  intrusted  with  its  administration,  as  to  what 
the  Government  should  be  and  do,  are  of  more 
consequence  to  the  country  than  even  their  knowl 
edge  of  orthography  and  etymology.  As  a  con 
sequence,  he  accepted  the  proposition  that  every 
place  of  executive  discretion  or  of  eminent  ad 
ministrative  power  should  be  occupied  by  the 
friends  of  the  Government.  This,  not  because  the 
spoils  belong  to  the  victors,  but  for  the  elevated 
and  sufficient  reason  that  the  chief  offices  of  state 
v^> 


THE  STATESMAN  AND   LIBERATOR.        127 

are  instrumentalities  and  agencies  by  which  the 
majority  carry  out  their  principles,  perfect  their 
measures,  and  render  their  policy  acceptable  to 
the  country ;  and  also  for  the  further  reason 
that  in  case  of  failure  the  administration  is  with 
out  excuse.  The  entire  public  policy  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  his  political 
principles  as  a  Republican.  Through  the  influ 
ence  of  experience  and  the  exercise  of  power  the 
politician  ripened  into  the  statesman,  but  the  ideas, 
principles,  and  purposes  of  the  statesman  were  the 
ideas,  principles,  and  purposes  of  the  partisan 
politician.  In  prosecuting  the  war  for  the  Union, 
in  the  steps  taken  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves,  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  to  follow  rather  than 
to  lead  the  Republican  party.  But  his  own  views 
were  more  advanced  usually  than  those  of  his 
party,  and  he  waited  patiently  and  confidently  for 
the  healthy  movements  of  public  sentiment  which 
he  well  knew  were  in  the  right  direction.  No 
man  was  ever  more  firmly  or  consistently  the 
representative  of  a  party  than  was  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  his  acknowledged  greatness  is  due,  first, 
to  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  principles 
and  measures  of  the  political  party  that  he 
represented ;  and,  secondly,  to  his  fidelity  in 
every  hour  of  his  administration,  and  in  every 
crisis  of  public  affairs,  to  the  principles,  ideas, 


128  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

and   measures   of    the    party  with   which    he  was 
identified. 

Having  seen  Mr.  Lincoln  as  frontiersman,  poli 
tician,  lawyer,  stump-speaker,  orator,  statesman, 
and  patriot,  it  only  remains  for  us  to  contemplate 
him  as  an  historical  personage.  First  of  all,  it  is 
to  be  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  next  in  fame  to 
Washington,  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
history  will  not  assign  to  Lincoln  an  equal  place, 
and  this  without  any  qualification  of  the  claims  or 
disparagement  in  any  way  of  the  virtues  of  the 
Father  of  his  country.  The  measure  of  Wash 
ington's  fame  is  full ;  but  for  many  centuries,  and 
over  vast  spaces  of  the  globe,  and  among  all  peo 
ples  passing  from  barbarism  or  semi-servitude  to 
civilization  and  freedom,  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  hailed 
as  the  Liberator.  In  all  governments  struggling 
for  existence,  his  example  will  be  a  guide  and  a 
help.  Neither  the  gift  of  prophecy  nor  the  qual 
ity  of  imagination  is  needed  to  forecast  the  steady 
growth  of  Lincoln's  fame.  At  the  close  of  the 
twentieth  century  the  United  States  will  contain 
one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  million 
inhabitants,  and  from  one  fourth  to  one  third  of 
the  population  of  the  globe  will  then  use  the  Eng 
lish  language.  To  all  these  and  to  all  their  de 
scendants  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  one  of  the  three 
great  characters  of  American  history,  while  to  the 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       129 

unnumbered  millions  of  the  negro  race  in  the 
United  States,  in  Africa,  in  South  America,  and 
in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  he  will  be  the  great 
figure  of  all  ages  and  of  every  nation.  His  fame 
will  increase  and  spread  with  the  knowledge  of 
republican  institutions,  with  the  expansion  and 
power  of  the  English-speaking  race,  and  with  the 
deeper  respect  which  civilization  will  create  for 
whatever  is  attractive  in  personal  character,  wise 
in  the  administration  of  public  affairs,  just  in  pol 
icy,  or  liberal  and  comprehensive  in  the  exercise 
of  constitutional  and  extra-constitutional  powers. 

It  was  but  an  inadequate  recognition  of  the 
character  and  services  of  Mr.  Lincoln  that  was 
made  by  the  patriots  of  Rome  when  they  chose 
a  fragment  from  the  wall  of  Servius  Tullius  and 
sent  it  to  the  President  with  this  inscription :  "  To 
Abraham  Lincoln,  President  for  the  second  time 
of  the  American  Republic,  citizens  of  Rome  pre 
sent  this  stone,  from  the  wall  of  Servius  Tullius, 
by  which  the  memory  of  each  of  those  brave  as- 
serters  of  Liberty  may  be  associated.  Anno  1865." 
The  final  and  nobler  tribute  to  Mr.  Lincoln  is  yet 
to  be  rendered,  not  by  a  single  city  nor  by  the 
patriots  of  a  single  country.  A  knowledge  of  his 
life  and  character  is  to  be  carried  by  civilization 
into  every  nation  and  to  every  people.  Under 
him,  and  largely  through  his  acts  and  influence, 


130  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 

justice  became  the  vital  force  of  the  republic. 
The  war  established  our  power.  The  policy  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  those  who  acted  with  him  se 
cured  the  reign  of  justice  ultimately  in  our  do 
mestic  affairs.  Possessing  power  and  exhibiting 
justice,  the  nation  should  pursue  a  policy  of  peace. 
Power,  Justice,  and  Peace ;  in  them  is  the  glory 
of  the  regenerated  republic. 


PRESIDENT    LINCOLN.* 

THE  nation  is  bowed  down  to-day  under  the 
weight  of  a  solemn  and  appalling  sorrow,  such  as 
never  before  rested  upon  a  great  people.  It  is  not 
the  presence  of  death  merely  ;  with  that  we  have 
become  familiar.  It  is  not  the  loss  of  a  leader  only 
that  we  mourn,  nor  of  a  statesman  who  had  exhib 
ited  wisdom  in  great  trials,  in  vast  enterprises  of 
war,  and  in  delicate  negotiations  for  the  preser 
vation  of  peace  with  foreign  countries ;  but  of  a 
twice-chosen  and  twice-ordained  ruler,  in  whom 
these  great  qualities  were  found,  and  to  which 
were  added  the  personal  courage  of  the  soldier 
and  the  moral  heroism  of  the  Christian. 

Judged  by  this  generation  in  other  lands,  and 
by  other  generations  in  future  times,  Abraham 
Lincoln  will  be  esteemed  as  the  wisest  of  rulers 
and  the  most  fortunate  of  men.  To  him  and  to  his 
fame  the  manner  of  his  death  is  nothing ;  to  the 
country  and  to  the  whole  civilized  family  of  man,  it 

*  Eulogy  delivered  before  the  city  government  of  Lowell,  Massa 
chusetts,  April  19,  1865. 


132  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

is  the  most  appalling  of  tragical  events.  The  rising 
sun  of  the  day  following  that  night  of  unexam 
pled  crime,  revealed  to  us  the  nation's  loss ;  but, 
stunned  by  the  shock,  the  people  were  unable  to 
comprehend  the  magnitude  of  the  calamity.  As 
the  last  rays  of  the  setting  sun  glided  into  the 
calm  twilight  of  evening,  the  continent  was  stilled 
into  silence  by  its  horror  of  the  crime,  and  its 
sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  loss  sustained. 

To  the  human  eye,  Abraham  Lincoln  seems  to 
have  been  specially  designated  by  Divine  Providence 
for  the  performance  of  a  great  work.  His  origin 
was  humble,  his  means  of  education  stinted.  He  was 
without  wealth,  and  he  did  not  enjoy  the  support 
of  influential  friends.  Much  the  larger  part  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  private  pursuits,  and  he  never  ex 
hibited  even  the  common  human  desire  for  public 
employment,  leadership,  and  fame.  His  ambition 
concerning  the  great  office  that  he  held  was  fully 
satisfied ;  and  the  triumph  of  his  moderate  and 
reasonable  expectations  was  not  even  marred  by 
the  untimely  and  bloody  hand  of  the  assassin. 
During  the  canvass  of  1864,  and  with  the  modesty 
of  a  child,  he  said :  "  I  can  not  say  that  I  wish  to 
perform  the  duties  of  President  for  four  years 
more ;  but  I  should  be  gratified  by  the  approval 
of  the  people  of  what  I  have  done."  This  he  re 
ceived  ;  and,  however  precious  it  may  have  been  to 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        133 

him,  it  is  a  more  precious  memory  to  the  people 
themselves. 

His  public  life  was  embraced  in  the  period  of 
about  six  years.  This  statement  does  not  include 
his  brief  service  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  nor  his  service  as  a  subordinate  officer  in 
one  of  the  frontier  Indian  wars,  nor  his  single  term 
of  service  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  In  none 
of  those  places  did  he  attract  the  attention  of  the 
country,  nor  did  the  experience  acquired  fit  him 
specially  for  the  great  duties  to  which  he  was 
called  finally.  He  was  nearly  fifty  years  of  age 
when  he  entered  upon  the  contest,  henceforth  his 
torical,  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  from  the  State  of 
Illinois.  This  was  the  commencement  of  his  pub 
lic  life,  and  from  that  time  forward  he  gained  and 
grew  in  the  estimation  of  his  countrymen.  At  the 
moment  of  his  death,  he  enjoyed  the  confidence  of 
all  loyal  men,  including  those  even  who  did  not 
openly  give  him  their  support ;  and  there  were 
many  who  came  at  last  to  regard  him  as  a  divinely 
appointed  leader  of  the  people.  The  speeches 
which  he  delivered  in  that  contest  are  faithful  ex 
ponents  of  his  character,  his  principles,  and  his  ca 
pacity.  His  statements  of  opinion  were  clear  and 
unequivocal ;  his  reasoning  was  logical  and  har 
monious  ;  and  his  principles,  as  then  expressed, 


I34  PRESIDENT-  LINCOLN 

were  consonant  with  the  declaration,  subsequently 
made,  that  "  each  man  has  the  right  by  nature  to 
be  the  equal  politically  of  any  other  man."  He 
was  then,  as  ever,  chary  of  predictions  concerning 
the  future ;  but  it  was  in  his  opening  speech  that 
he  declared  his  conviction,  which  was  in  truth  a 
prophecy,  that  this  nation  could  not  remain  perma 
nently  half  slave  and  half  free. 

In  that  long  and  arduous  contest  with  one  of 
the  foremost  men  of  the  country,  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  no  remark  which  he  was  unable  to  defend, 
nor  could  he,  by  any  force  of  argument,  be  driven 
from  a  position  that  he  had  taken.  It  was  then 
that  those  who  heard  or  read  the  debate  observed 
the  richness  of  his  nature  in  mirth  and  wit  which 
charmed  his  friends  without  wounding  his  oppo 
nents,  and  which  he  used  with  wonderful  sagacity 
in  illustrating  his  own  arguments,  or  in  weakening, 
or  even  at  times  in  overthrowing,  the  arguments  of 
his  antagonist.  And  yet  it  can  not  be  doubted 
that  for  many  years,  if  not  from  his  very  youth, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  melancholy  man.  He  seemed 
to  bear  about  with  him  the  weight  of  coming  cares, 
and  to  sit  in  gloom,  as  though  his  path  of  life  was 
darkened  by  an  unwelcome  shadow.  His  fondness 
for  story  and  love  for  mirth  were  the  compensation 
which  Nature  gave. 

In  the  midst  of  overburdening  cares,  these  char- 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        135 

acteristics  were  a  daily  relief ;  and  yet  it  is  but 
just  to  say  that  he  often  used  an  appropriate  story 
as  a  means  of  foiling  a  too  inquisitive  visitor,  or  of 
changing-  or  ending  a  conversation  which  he  did 
not  desire  to  pursue. 

During  the  first  French  Revolution,  when  the 
streets  of  Paris  were  stained  with  human  blood, 
the  inhabitants,  women  and  men,  flocked  to  places 
of  amusement.  To  the  mass  of  mankind,  and  es 
pecially  to  the  inexperienced,  this  conduct  appears 
frivolous,  or  as  the  exhibition  of  a  criminal  indiffer 
ence  to  the  miseries  of  individuals  and  the  calami 
ties  of  the  public.  But  such  are  the  horrors  of 
war,  the  pressure  of  responsibility,  that  men  often 
seek  refuge  and  relief  in  amusements  from  which 
in  ordinary  times  they  would  turn  aside. 

In  Mr.  Lincoln's  speeches  of  1858  there  are 
passages  which  suggest  to  the  mind  the  classic 
models  of  ancient  days,  although  they  may  not  in 
any  proper  sense  rise  to  an  equality  with  them. 
His  style  of  writing  was  as  simple  as  were  his  own 
habits  and  manners  ;  and  no  person  ever  excelled 
him  in  clearness  of  expression.  Hence  he  was  un 
derstood  and  appreciated  by  all  classes.  The 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  his  address  at  the 
dedication  of  the  cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  and  his 
touching  letter  to  the  widowed  mother  who  had 
given  five  sons  to  the  country,  are  memorable 


136  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

as  evidences  of  his  intellectual  and  moral  great 
ness. 

His  speeches  of  1858  are  marked  for  the  precis 
ion  with  which  he  stated  his  own  positions,  and  for 
the  firmness  exhibited  whenever  his  opponent  en 
deavored  to  worry  him  from  his  chosen  ground, 
or,  by  artifice,  or  argument,  or  persuasion,  to  in 
duce  him  to  advance  a  step  beyond. 

His  administration,  as  far  as  he  himself  was  con 
cerned,  was  inaugurated  upon  the  doctrines  and 
principles  of  the  great  debate.  He  recognized  the 
obligation  to  return  fugitives  from  slavery,  and  it 
was  no  part  of  his  purpose  to  interfere  with  slavery 
in  the  States  where  it  existed.  It  must  remain  for 
the  historian  and  biographer,  who  may  have  access 
to  private  and  personal  sources  of  knowledge,  to 
inform  the  country  and  the  world  how  far  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  when  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  President, 
comprehended  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle  in 
which  the  nation  was  about  to  engage. 

The  circumstance  that  his  first  call  for  volun 
teers  was  for  seventy-five  thousand  men  only,  is 
not  valuable  as  evidence  one  way  or  the  other. 
The  number  was  quite  equal  to  our  supply  of  arms 
and  material  of  war,  and  altogether  too  large  for 
the  experience  of  the  men  then  at  the  head  of 
military  affairs.  The  number  was  sufficient  to 
show  his  purpose,  the  purpose  to  which  he  adhered 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR. 


137 


through  all  the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  this  event 
ful  contest.  His  purpose  was  the  suppression  of 
the  rebellion,  both  as  a  civil  organization  and  as  an 
armed  military  force,  and  the  re-establishment  of 
the  authority  of  the  United  States  over  the  terri 
tory  of  the  Union.  There  yet  remain,  in  the  minds 
of  men  who  were  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1861,  the  recollection  of 
expressions  made  by  him  which  indicate  that  there 
were  then  vague  thoughts  in  his  mind  that  it 
might  be  his  lot  under  Providence  to  bring  the 
slaves  of  the  country  out  of  their  bondage.  But, 
however  this  may  have  been,  he  never  deviated 
from  his  purpose  to  suppress  the  rebellion  ;  and  he 
conscientiously  applied  the  means  at  his  command 
to  the  attainment  of  that  end.  Thus,  step  by  step, 
he  advanced,  until  in  his  own  judgment,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  country,  and  of  the  best  portion  of 
mankind  in  other  civilized  nations,  the  emancipa 
tion  of  the  slaves  was  a  necessary  means  for  the 
successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  not  insensible  to  the  justice  of  emancipation; 
he  saw  its  wisdom  as  a  measure  of  public  policy ; 
but  he  delayed  the  proclamation  until  he  was  fully 
convinced  that  it  offered  the  only  chance  of  avert 
ing  a  foreign  war,  suppressing  the  rebellion,  and 
restoring  the  Union  of  the  States. 

In  the  great  struggle  of  1862,  Mr.  Lincoln  ex- 


I38  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

hibited  a  twofold  character.  He  was  personally 
the  enemy  of  slavery,  and  he  ardently  desired  its 
abolition  ;  but  he  also  regarded  his  oath  of  office, 
and  steadily  refused  to  recognize  the  existence  of 
any  right  to  proclaim  emancipation  while  other 
means  of  saving  the  republic  remained.  He 
sought  the  path  of  duty,  and  he  walked  fearlessly 
in  it.  Until  he  was  satisfied  of  the  necessity  of 
emancipation,  no  earthly  power  could  have  led 
him  to  issue  the  proclamation  ;  and,  after  its  is 
sue,  no  earthly  power  could  have  induced  him 
to  retract  or  to  qualify  it.  When  an  effort  was 
made  to  persuade  him  to  qualify  the  proclama 
tion,  he  said,  in  reference  to  the  blacks,  "  My 
word  is  out  to  these  people,  and  I  can't  take  it 
back !  " 

It  has  been  common,  in  representative  govern 
ments,  for  men  to  be  advanced  to  great  positions 
without  any  sufficient  evidence  existing  of  their 
ability  to  perform  the  corresponding  duties,  and  it 
has  often  happened  that  the  occupant  has  not  been 
elevated,  while  the  office  has  been  sadly  de 
graded.  It  was  observed  by  those  who  visited 
Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  day  following  his  nomination 
at  Chicago,  in  June,  1860,  that  he  would  prove,  in 
the  event  of  his  election,  either  a  great  success  or 
a  great  failure. 

This  prediction  was  based  upon  the  single  fact 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       139 

that  he  was  different  from  ordinary  men,  and  it  did 
not  contain,  as  an  element  of  the  opinion,  any 
knowledge  of  his  peculiar  characteristics.  History 
will  accept  the  first  branch  of  the  alternative  opin 
ion,  and  pronounce  his  administration  a  great  suc 
cess.  To  this  success  Mr.  Lincoln  most  largely 
contributed,  and  this  in  spite  of  peculiarities  which 
appeared  to  amount  to  defects  in  a  great  ruler  in 
troublous  times. 

Never  were  words  uttered  which  contained 
less  truth  than  those  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  the 
assassin — "  Sic  semper  tyrannis  !  " — as  he  passed,  in 
the  presence  of  an  excited  and  bewildered  crowd, 
from  the  spot  where  he  had  committed  the  foulest 
of  murders,  to  the  stage  of  the  theatre  whence  he 
made  his  escape. 

Mr.  Lincoln  exercised  power  with  positive  re 
luctance  and  unfeigned  distaste.  He  shrank  from 
the  exhibition  of  any  authority  that  was  oppressive, 
harsh,  or  even  disagreeable,  to  a  human  being.  He 
passed  an  entire  night  in  anxious  thought  and 
prayerful  deliberation  before  he  could  sanction  the 
execution  of  Gordon,  the  slave-dealer,  although  he 
had  been  tried,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to 
death.  There  is  but  little  doubt,  such  was  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  nature,  that  he  desired 
to  close  the  war,  and  restore  the  Union,  without 

exacting  the  forfeit  of  a  single  life  as  a  punishment 
10 


140 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 


for  the  great  crime  of  which  the  leaders  in  this 
rebellion  are  guilty. 

Could  this  liberal  policy  have  been  carried  out, 
it  would  have  been  the  theme  of  perpetual  eulogy, 
and  its  author  would  have  received  the  acclama 
tion  of  all  races  and  classes  of  men. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  in  his  nature,  or  in  the 
habits  of  his  life,  any  element  or  feature  of  tyranny. 
He  had  no  love  of  power  for  the  sake  of  power. 
He  preferred  that  every  man  should  act  as  might 
seem  to  him  best ;  and  when,  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duties,  he  was  called  to  enforce  penalties,  or 
even  to  remove  men  from  place,  he  suffered  more 
usually  than  did  the  subjects  of  his  authority.  It 
is  easy  to  understand  that  this  peculiarity  was 
sometimes  an  obstacle  to  the  vigorous  administra 
tion  of  affairs.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must 
have  happened  occasionally  that  these  delays  led 
to  a  better  judgment  in  the  end. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  ex 
pression,  an  industrious  man.  Whatever  he  ex 
amined,  he  examined  carefully  and  thoroughly. 
His  patience  was  unlimited.  He  listened  atten 
tively  to  advice,  though  it  is  probable  that  he  sel 
dom  asked  it.  For  nearly  fifty  years  before  he  en 
tered  upon  the  duties  of  President,  he  had  relied 
upon  himself ;  and  it  is  said  that,  in  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  he  never  sought  opinions  or  sugges- 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        14 1 

tions  from  his  brethren,  except  as  they  were  associ 
ated  with  him  in  particular  causes.  He  had  the 
acuteness  of  the  lawyer  and  the  fairness  of  the 
judge.  The  case  must  be  intricate  indeed  which 
he  did  not  easily  analyze,  so  as  to  distinguish  and 
estimate  whatever  was  meritorious  or  otherwise  in 
it.  He  saw  also  through  the  motives  of  men.  He 
easily  fathomed  those  around  him,  and  acted  in  the 
end  as  though  he  understood  their  dispositions 
toward  himself. 

He  appeared  to  possess  an  intuitive  knowledge 
of  the  opinions  and  purposes  of  the  people.  His 
sense  of  justice  was  exact ;  and,  if  he  ever  failed  to 
be  guided  by  it,  the  departure  was  due  to  the  kind 
ness  of  his  nature,  which  always  prompted  him  to 
look  with  the  compassion  of  a  parent  upon  the 
unfortunate— the  guilty  as  well  as  the  innocent. 
He  was  cautious  in  forming  opinions,  and  dis 
inclined  to  disclose  his  purposes  until  the  mo 
ment  of  action  arrived.  He  examined  every  sub 
ject  of  importance  with  conscientious  care  ;  his 
conclusions  were  formed  under  a  solemn  sense  of 
duty  ;  and  while  that  sense  of  duty  remained,  he 
was  firm  in  resisting  all  counter-influences.  In 
unimportant  matters,  not  involving  principles  or 
the  character  of  his  public  policy,  he  yielded 
readily  to  the  wishes  of  those  around  him  ;  and 
thus  they  who  knew  him  or  heard  of  him  in  these 


1 42  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

relations  only,  were  misled  as  to  his  true  char 
acter. 

No  magistrate  or  ruler  ever  labored  more  zeal 
ously  to  place  his  measures  and  policy  upon  the 
sure  foundation  of  right ;  and  no  magistrate  or 
ruler  ever  adhered  to  his  measures  and  policy  with 
more  firmness  as  long  as  he  felt  sure  of  the  founda 
tion.  His  last  public  address  is  a  memorable  illus 
tration  of  these  traits  of  character. 

The  charmed  cord  by  which  he  attached  all  to 
him  who  enjoyed  his  acquaintance,  even  in  the 
slightest  degree,  was  the  absence  of  all  pretension 
in  manners,  conversation,  or  personal  appearance. 
This  was  not  humility,  either  real  or  assumed ;  but 
it  was  due  to  an  innate  and  ever-present  conscious 
ness  of  the  equality  of  men.  He  accorded  to  every 
one  who  approached  him,  whatever  his  business 
or  station  in  life,  such  hearing  and  attention  as 
circumstances  permitted.  For  himself  he  asked 
nothing  of  the  nature  of  personal  consideration. 
In  the  multiplicity  of  his  cares,  in  his  daily  atten 
tion  to  cases  touching  the  reputation  and  rights 
of  humble  and  unknown  men,  in  the  patience 
with  which  he  listened  to  the  narratives  of  heart 
broken  women,  whose  husbands,  or  sons,  or  broth 
ers,  had  fallen  under  arrest,  or  into  disgrace  in  the 
military  or  naval  service  of  the  country,  he  was  in 
deed  the  servant  and  the  friend  of  all. 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        143 

The  inexorable  rules  of  military  discipline  were 
sometimes  disregarded  by  him  ;  he  sought  to  make 
an  open  way  for  justice  through  the  forms  and 
technicalities  of  courts-martial,  bureaus,  and  depart 
ments  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  public  serv 
ice  may  have  received  detriment  occasionally  by 
the  too  free  use  of  the  power  to  pardon  and  to  re 
store.  But  the  nation  could  well  afford  the  indul 
gence  of  his  overkind  nature  in  these  particulars ; 
for  by  this  kindness  of  nature  he  drew  the  people 
to  him,  and  thus  opinions  were  harmonized,  the  re 
public  was  strengthened,  and  the  power  of  its  ene 
mies  sensibly  diminished. 

Mr.  Lincoln  never  despaired  of  the  republic. 
During  the  dark  days  of  July,  August,  and  Sep 
tember,  1862,  he  was  not  dismayed  by  the  disasters 
which  befell  our  arms.  His  confidence  was  not  in 
our  military  strength  alone ;  he  looked  to  the  Lord 
of  hosts  for  the  final  delivery  of  the  people. 

Following  this  attempt  to  analyze  Mr.  Lincoln's 
intellectual  and  moral  character,  it  remains  to  be 
said  that  neither  this  analysis,  nor  the  statements 
with  which  it  is  connected,  furnish  any  just  idea  of 
the  man.  He  was  more,  he  was  greater,  he  was 
wiser,  he  was  better,  than  the  ideal  man  which  we 
should  be  authorized  to  create  from  the  qualities 
disclosed  by  the  analysis.  And  so,  possibly,  there 
will  ever  remain  an  apparent  dissimilitude  between 


144  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

the  appreciable  individual  qualities  of  the  man  and 
the  man  himself. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  wise  man ;  but  he  had  not 
the  wisdom  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  who  de 
clared  it  to  be  the  knowledge  of  things  both  divine 
and  human,  together  with  the  causes  on  which 
they  depend ;  but  he  was  rather  an  illustration  of 
the  proverb  of  Solomon,  "  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is 
the  instruction  of  \visdom." 

Mr.  Lincoln  must  ever  be  named  among  the 
great  personages  of  history.  He  will  be  con 
trasted  rather  than  compared  with  those  with 
whom  he  is  thus  to  be  associated ;  and,  when  com 
pared  with  any,  he  is  most  likely  to  be  compared 
with  the  Father  of  his  Country.  If  this  be  so,  then 
his  rank  is  already  fixed  and  secure.  In  many  par 
ticulars  he  differs  from  other  great  men.  When 
his  important  public  services  began,  he  was  more 
than  fifty  years  of  age ;  while  Cromwell  was  only 
forty  years  old  when  called  from  retirement,  and 
most  eminent  men  in  civil  and  military  life  have 
been  distinguished  at  an  earlier  age.  He  had 
neither  military  fame  nor  military  experience.  He 
was  taken  from  private  life,  and  advanced  to  the 
Presidency,  upon  a  pure  question  or  declaration  of 
public  policy — the  non-extension  of  slavery.  He  en 
tered  upon  his  great  office  in  the  presence  of  assas 
sins  and  traitors ;  and,  from  that  day  to  the  day  of 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       145 

his  death,  he  dwelt  in  their  presence  and  faithfully 
performed  his  duties.  He  conducted  the  affairs  of 
the  republic  in  the  most  perilous  of  times.  In  the 
short  period  of  four  years  he  called  three  million 
men  into  the  military  service  of  his  country.  Dur 
ing-  his  administration  a  rebellion,  in  which  eleven 
States  and  six  million  people  were  involved,  was 
effectually  overthrown.  But  the  great  act  which 
secures  to  his  name  all  the  immortality  which  earth 
can  bestow,  is  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 
The  knowledge  of  that  deed  can  never  die.  On 
this  continent  it  will  be  associated  with  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  and  with  that  alone.  One 
made  a  nation  independent ;  the  other  made  a  race 
free. 

There  are  four  million  people  in  this  country 
who  now  regard  Abraham  Lincoln  as  their  deliv 
erer  from  bondage,  and  whose  posterity,  through 
all  the  coming  centuries,  will  render  tribute  of 
praise  to  his  name  and  memory.  But  his  fame  in 
connection  with  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation 
will  not  be  left  to  the  care  of  those  who  have  been 
the  recipients  of  the  boon  of  freedom.  The  white 
people  of  the  South  will  yet  rejoice  in  the  knowl 
edge  of  their  own  deliverance  through  this  gift  to 
the  now-despised  colored  man.  And,  finally,  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  of  the  American  Conti 
nent,  together  with  the  whole  family  of  civilized 


146  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

man,  will  join  in  honors  to  the  memory  of  him  who 
freed  a  race  and  saved  a  nation. 

What  fame  that  is  human  merely  can  be  more 
secure  ?  What  glory  that  is  of  earth  can  be  more 
enduring  ?  What  deed  for  good  can  be  more  wide 
spread  ? 

The  influence  of  the  great  act  of  his  life  will 
extend  to  every  continent  and  to  all  races.  It  will 
advance  with  civilization  into  Africa ;  it  will  shake 
and  finally  overthrow  slavery  in  the  dominions  of 
Spain  and  in  the  Empire  of  Brazil ;  and  at  last,  in 
that  it  saved  a  republic,  and  perpetuated  a  free 
representative  government  as  an  example  and 
model  for  mankind,  it  will  undermine  the  monarchi 
cal,  aristocratic,  and  despotic  institutions  of  Europe 
and  Asia.  What  fame  that  is  human  merely  can 
be  more  secure  ?  What  glory  that  is  of  earth  can 
be  more  enduring  ?  What  deed  for  good  can  be 
more  wide-spread  ? 

Yet  this  great  act  rested  on  a  foundation  on 
which  all  may  stand.  In  the  place  where  he  was, 
he  did  that  which,  in  his  judgment,  duty  to  his 
country  and  to  his  God  required.  This  is,  indeed, 
his  highest  praise,  and  the  only  eulogy  that  his  life 
demands. 

That  he  had  greater  opportunities  than  other 
men,  was  his  responsibility  and  burden ;  that  he 
used  his  great  opportunities  for  the  preservation 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.        147 

of  his  country  and  the  relief  of  the  oppressed,  is  his 
own  glory. 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  been  permitted  to  reach  the 
age  attained  by  Jefferson  or  Adams,  his  death 
would  have  produced  a  profound  impression  upon 
his  countrymen. 

Had  he  now,  in  the  opening  months  of  his  sec 
ond  administration,  fallen  by  accident  or  yielded  to 
disease,  the  nation  would  have  been  bowed  down 
in  inexpressible  grief.  Every  loyal  heart  would 
have  been  burdened  with  a  weight  of  sorrow,  and 
every  loyal  household  would  have  felt  as  though  a 
place  had  been  made  vacant  at  its  own  hearth 
stone. 

That  he  has  now  fallen  by  the  hand  of  an  assas 
sin  is  in  itself  a  horror  too  appalling  for  contempla 
tion.  Had  the  deed  been  committed  in  ancient 
Greece  or  Rome,  we  could  not  now  read  the  his 
torian's  record  without  a  shudder  and  a  tear.  All 
those  qualities  in  the  illustrious  victim  which  we 
cherish  were  spurs,  ever  goading  the  conspirators 
on  to  the  consummation  of  their  crime. 

His  love  of  country  and  of  liberty,  his  devotion 
to  duty,  his  firmness  and  persistency  in  the  right, 
his  kindness  of  heart,  and  his  spirit  of  mercy,  were 
all  reasons  or  inducements  influencing  the  purposes 
of  the  conspirators.  Neither  greatness  nor  good 
ness  was  a  shield.  Had  he  been  greater  and  bet- 


I48  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 

ter  and  wiser  than  he  was,  his  fate  would  have 
been  the  same. 

In  this  hour  of  calamity,  let  not  the  thirst  for 
vengeance  take  possession  of  our  souls.  But  jus 
tice  should  be  done.  The  circle  of  conspirators  is 
already  broken  and  entered  by  the  officers  of  the 
law,  and  mankind  will  finally  be  permitted  to  see 
who  were  the  authors  and  who  the  perpetrators  of 
this  great  crime.  For  the  members  of  this  circle, 
whether  it  be  small  or  large,  and  whomsoever  it 
may  include,  there  should  be  neither  compassion 
nor  mercy,  but  justice  and  only  justice.  Judged  as 
men  judge,  this  crime  is  too  great  for  pardon. 
The  criminals  can  find  no  protection  or  harbor  in 
any  civilized  country.  Let  the  Government  pursue 
them  with  its  full  power  until  the  last  one  disap 
pears  from  earth.  Vex  every  sea,  visit  every  isl 
and,  traverse  every  continent ;  let  there  be  no  abid 
ing-place  for  these  criminals  between  the  Arctic 
seas  and  the  Antarctic  pole  ! 

This,  Justice  demands,  as  she  sits  in  judgment 
upon  this  unparalleled  crime. 

One  duty  and  one  consolation  remain.  He  who 
destroyed  slavery  was  himself  by  slavery  de 
stroyed.  Whoever  the  assassin,  and  however  nu 
merous  the  conspirators,  love  of  slavery  was  the 
evil  spirit  which  had  entered  into  these  men  and 
taken  possession  of  them.  Slavery  is  the  source 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  LIBERATOR.       149 

and  fountain  of  the  crime,  and  all  they  who  have 
given  their  support  to  slavery  are  in  some  degree 
responsible  for  the  awful  deed.  Let,  then,  the 
nation  purify  itself  from  this  the  foulest  of  sins. 
And  this  is  our  duty. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  per 
mitted  to  do  more  than  any  other  man  of  this  cent 
ury  for  his  country,  for  liberty,  and  for  mankind. 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  dead  ;  but  the  nation  lives,  and  the 
providence  of  God  ever  continues.  No  single  life 
was  ever  yet  essential  to  the  life  of  a  nation.  This 
is  our  consolation  and  ground  for  confidence  in  the 
future. 


GENERAL    GRANT. 

THE  representative,  republican  system  of  gov 
ernment  in  the  United  States  is  no  longer  an  ex 
periment.  In  the  period  of  the  existence  of  this 
government,  now  nearly  a  hundred  years,  its  Con 
stitution  has  been  perfected,  its  methods  of  admin 
istration  improved,  its  faculties  enlarged,  its  pow 
ers  tested,  and  the  limits  of  its  authority  and  ju 
risdiction  ascertained  and  established  either  by  a 
recognized  public  opinion,  or  by  the  force  of  ac 
cepted  judicial  decisions. 

While  there  are  with  us  differences  of  opinion 
upon  measures  of  administration,  there  are  no  sub 
stantial  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  the  government  under  which 
we  are  living.  In  this  respect  we  are  distinguished 
favorably  from  every  other  great  government,  un 
less  a  parallel  can  be  found  in  the  Oriental  world. 
In  England,  Russia,  Germany,  and  France,  there 
are  bodies  of  men  who  would  welcome  the  over 
throw  of  the  existing  forms  of  government,  and 
the  advent  of  a  new  order  of  things. 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.  151 

No  system  that  is  of  human  origin  can  be  estab 
lished  more  firmly  than  is  the  republican  system  of 
government  in  the  United  States.  This  result  is 
due  in  part  to  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  it  is  due  in 
a  larger  degree,  probably,  to  what  we  are  accus 
tomed  to  call  the  force  of  events.  But  as  the 
events  of  which  we  speak  are  dependent,  either 
presently  or  remotely,  upon  the  acts  of  men,  it  fol 
lows  that  the  policy  and  doings  of  rulers  of  states, 
and  the  achievements  of  leaders  of  armies,  whose 
acts  may  have  tended  to  create,  to  preserve,  or  to 
destroy  states,  must  always  engage  the  attention 
of  mankind. 

It  is  therefore  my  purpose  to  consider  some  of 
the  events  in  the  career  of  General  Grant  which 
have  contributed  to  the  final  and  favorable  solu 
tion  of  the  problems  that  vexed  the  founders  of  this 
Government. 

In  the  first  century  of  our  national  life  three 
persons  have  been  elected  to  the  presidency  who 
are,  and  who  will  continue  to  be,  the  three  great 
figures  in  American  history :  The  Founder  of  the 
Republic ;  the  Liberator  of  the  Republic  ;  the 
Savior  of  the  Republic— 

WASHINGTON,  LINCOLN,  AND  GRANT. 
They  were  not  rivals  in  deeds  ;  and  if  some  re 
semblances  in  character  may  be  found,  it  is  yet 


152  GENERAL   GRANT 

true  that  they  touched  one  another  at  a  few  points 
only. 

As  a  soldier,  Washington  was  equal  to  the  de 
mand  made  upon  him  ;  and  as  a  recognized  lender 
in  the  organization  of  a  government  upon  ideas 
and  principles  for  which  there  was  no  precedent, 
his  pre-eminence  is  established. 

Lincoln's  fame  rests  upon  his  pure  patriotism, 
his  unyielding  courage,  and  his  great  act  of  eman 
cipation  which  made  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
possible  upon  the  basis  of  the  equality  of  men  in 
the  States,  and  the  equality  of  States  in  the  Union. 

The  world-wide  fame  of  General  Grant  rests 
upon  his  military  achievements.  As  a  soldier  he 
has  no  equal  in  our  history  ;  and  as  a  commander 
of  armies  he  must  be  numbered  in  the  first  ten  of 
whom  the  annals  of  mankind  have  taken  notice. 

I  speak  of  General  Grant  as  his  friend,  and  in 
the  hope  that  ultimately  the  wrorld  may  see  him 
on  the  page  of  history  as  he  appeared  to  those 
who  were  near  him  when  he  was  among  the  living. 
But  I  am  not  to  use  the  language  of  bereave 
ment,  nor  indulge  myself  in  the  utterance  of  fu 
nereal  phrases.  The  days  of  mourning  are  over 
with  the  great  public,  and  henceforth  mankind  will 
contemplate  General  Grant  as  an  historical  charac 
ter  only. 

"  The  glory  dies  not,  and  the  grief  is  past." 


THE  SOLDIER  AXD  STATESMAN.          153 

The  greatness  of  men  is  manifested  in  what 
they  are,  in  what  they  do,  and  in  their  capacity  for 
foreseeing  what  is  to  be. 

This  test  is  applied  to  all  the  living,  either  by 
the  family,  or  the  neighborhood,  or  the  State,  or 
the  nation  ;  and  it  is  applied  to  all  the  dead  whose 
names  and  deeds  finds  a  place  in  history.  From 
that,  test  we  are  not  to  shrink  in  this  discussion. 
Things  not  attempted,  or  attempted  and  not  ac 
complished,  do  not  necessarily,  nor  even  naturally, 
furnish  either  a  test  or  a  measure  of  a  man's  ca 
pacities.  We  value  a  machine  by  the  measure  of 
its  strength  at  its  weakest  point ;  but  we  value  a 
man  by  the  measure  of  his  strength  at  the  place 
where  he  is  strongest.  Of  absolute  human  great 
ness  we  have  had  no  example  ;  nor  has  it  been  the 
fortune  of  any  man  to  be  pre-eminent  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  Usually  the  pre-eminence  achieved  has 
been  limited  to  a  single  line  of  effort  or  sphere  of 
duty. 

The  greatness  of  men  is  not  found  in  a  repeti 
tion  of  what  has  been  done  or  said  in  other  ages  or 
by  other  men.  The  demand  is  for  some  new 
thought ;  some  advance  in  scientific  knowledge ; 
some  progress  in  art ;  some  new  idea  in  govern 
ment  ;  some  feat,  or  stratagem,  or  campaign  in 
war  for  which  no  precedent  could  be  found  in  the 
ages  ;  or  some  word  or  deed  or  policy  by  which 


154  GENERAL   GRANT 

nations  are  created,  regenerated,  or  saved.  And 
from  this  test  we  are  not  to  shrink  in  considering 
the  career  of  General  Grant. 

Greatness  is  not  so  much  an  acquisition  as  an 
endowment.  The  schools  can  not  go  beyond  the 
known.  They  teach  what  has  been  accomplished. 
The  sphere  of  the  truly  great  man  is  outside  or 
beyond  the  known.  In  that  sphere  the  rules  of 
the  schools  must  be  disregarded,  or  their  teach 
ings  must  be  extended. 

The  influence  of  a  great  man  will  outlast  the 
civilization  in  which  he  acts,  of  which  he  is  a  part, 
and  to  whose  power  he  contributes.  It  may  even 
outlive  all  knowledge  of  his  name,  it  may  course 
through  unseen  channels  when  nationalities,  once 
vigorous,  when  forms  of  government  once  stable 
and  controlling,  when  religions  once  believed  and 
adored,  have  passed  away  and  disappeared  abso 
lutely  from  the  knowledge  of  men.  All  this  can 
not  be  said  or  predicated  of  any  living  man,  nor  can 
any  person  assume  as  much  of  any  contemporary, 
living  or  dead.  This  test  is  not  in  the  present;  it 
can  only  be  made  in  the  far-distant  future.  Nor 
can  this  claim  be  urged  for  any  mere  soldier,  what 
ever  his  deeds,  or  however  wide-spread  may  be  his 
fame.  The  achievements  of  war  must  be  inter 
woven  with  the  fortunes  of  mankind  in  times  of 
peace,  and  they  must  so  work  in  institutions  and 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          155 

through  the  ages  as  to  increase  the  happiness,  ele 
vate  the  character,  and  advance  the  destiny  of  men 
in  nations,  or  promote  the  progress  of  the  race 
generally. 

In  this  particular  the  fortunes  of  General 
Washington  and  General  Grant  are  identical  in 
kind  although  they  do  not  correspond  in  degree. 
Washington's  career  in  war  was  followed  by  the 
successful  reorganization  of  the  States  of  the  Con 
federacy  of  1778,  into  a  more  perfect  Union,  but 
still  a  Union  in  which  there  were  serious  defects. 

The  basis  of  our  system  of  government  is 
found  in  the  institutions  of  England  and  in  the  in 
stitutions  of  the  colonies.  The  independent  judi 
ciary  ;  the  single  executive,  responsible  to  the  peo 
ple  through  the  legislative  branch  of  the  Govern 
ment  ;  the  Legislature  composed  of  two  Houses,  of 
equal  powers  in  matters  of  legislation;  and  the 
equality  of  States  as  constituents  of  the  nation, 
were  all  recognized  as  institutional  features  whose 
incorporation  into  the  new  Constitution  was  a  ne 
cessity  arising  from  our  history,  traditions,  and  ex 
perience. 

The  debates  of  the  Convention  of  1787,  the  ar 
guments  of  "  The  Federalist,"  and  the  commentaries 
of  Story  upon  the  Constitution,  all  show  that  the 
field  for  invention  was  limited.  Our  fathers  bor 
rowed  freely  from  Great  Britain  ;  they  accepted 
ii 


156  GENERAL   GRANT 

the  lessons  derived  from  the  experience  of  the 
colonies,  and  especially  the  lesson  taught  by  the 
failure  of  the  Confederation.  And,  finally,  they 
made  concessions,  not  always  without  misgivings, 
and  especially  were  there  misgivings  in  reference 
to  the  concessions  relating  to  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

In  1787  there  was  a  general  impression  that  a 
new  form  of  government  was  indispensable,  but 
there  was  a  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what 
that  government  should  be.  There  was  a  senti 
ment  of  nationality,  but  that  sentiment  was  subor 
dinated  generally  to  the  hereditary  attachment  of  the 
masses  to  the  respective  colonies  and  States.  Some 
of  the  leaders  feared  that  the  sovereignty  and  pow 
ers  of  the  States  would  be  absorbed  by  the  General 
Government,  while  others  apprehended  that  the 
Union  under  the  new  Constitution  would  crumble 
and  fall  from  its  own  inherent  weakness.  To 
Washington  is  the  country  most  largely  indebted 
for  the  spirit  of  conciliation  and  for  the  mutual 
confidence  which  led  the  people  to  ratify  the  work 
of  the  Convention. 

When  Washington  came  to  the  presidency,  the 
questions  of  pressing  and  paramount  importance 
were  these :  The  maintenance  of  the  public  credit ; 
the  payment  of  the  public  debt ;  the  preservation  of 
peace,  while  we  asserted  and  vindicated  all  our  just 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          157 

rights  as  one  of  the  family  of  nations ;  and,  finally, 
the  organization  of  States,  discordant  in  opinion 
and  sensitive  to  every  movement  affecting  their  in 
dependence  and  sovereignty,  into  a  compact  politi 
cal  Union,  capable  of  furnishing  adequate  protec 
tion,  to  citizens  and  States,  against  domestic  vio 
lence  and  foreign  foes. 

All  this  was  the  work  of  administration  when 
the  Constitution  had  been  prepared  by  the  Con 
vention,  when  it  had  been  ratified  by  the  people, 
and  when  the  skeleton  framework  of  the  Govern 
ment  had  been  brought  together ;  and  all  this  was 
accomplished  during  the  presidency  of  General 
Washington. 

The  claim  of  Washington  to  the  appellation  of 
"Founder  of  the  Republic"  rests  not  alone  nor 
chiefly  upon  his  services  as  commander  of  the 
armies,  nor  upon  his  services  as  President  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention,  but  rather  upon  his  fore 
seeing,  conservative,  organizing  qualities  and  facul 
ties  manifested  most  clearly  when  he  became  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

When  General  Grant  became  President,  seven 
only  of  the  eleven  States  then  recently  in  rebellion 
had  been  admitted  to  representation  in  Congress. 
Georgia,  Texas,  Mississippi,  and  Virginia,  were 
still  held  in  a  territorial  condition  and  subject  to 
military  rule.  The  preceding  three  years  had  been 


158  GENERAL  GRANT 

marked  by  a  bitter  contest  between  the  executive 
and  legislative  branches  of  the  Government.  In 
ordinary  times  such  a  contest  would  affect  perni 
ciously  the  welfare  of  a  people.  From  1866  to 
1869  it  was  impossible  for  either  party  to  the  con 
test  to  originate  and  execute  successfully  any 
system  of  reconstruction.  The  larger  body  of  the 
white  inhabitants  of  the  South  took  sides  with 
the  President;  the  majority  of  the  voters  of  the 
old  free  States  sustained  the  policy  of  Congress. 
Under  these  diverse  influences  the  restoration  of 
the  States  of  the  South  was  postponed,  divisions 
of  opinion  were  promoted,  which  soon  ripened  into 
bitter  hostilities,  all  business  interests  languished, 
and  the  day  of  substantial  prosperity  for  the  war- 
stricken  region  of  our  country  seemed  farther  away 
than  when  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox. 

These  evil  influences  were  not  limited  by  the 
boundaries  of  the  States  that  had  been  in  rebellion. 
The  public  revenues  were  either  not  collected,  or 
they  were  squandered  or  plundered  on  the  way  to 
the  Treasury.  The  payments  on  the  public  debt 
for  the  year  1868  did  not  exceed  twenty-five  mill 
ion  dollars,  while  the  total  liabilities  of  the  nation, 
liquidated  and  unliquidated,  were  not  less  than 
three  thousand  million.  The  annual  interest  ac 
count  exceeded  one  hundred  and  thirty  million 
dollars. 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          159 

The  public  credit  was  so  impaired  that  coin 
bonds,  bearing  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent, 
were  sold  at  eighty-three  cents  on  the  dollar ;  the 
doctrine  of  repudiation  was  taught  openly ;  and  in 
telligent  communities  accepted  the  notion  that  the 
issue  of  irredeemable  paper  money  was  a  safe  and 
wise  public  policy.  The  country  was  divided,  not 
very  unequally,  upon  the  question  of  extending  the 
right  of  suffrage  to  the  negro  population  of  the 
South.  The  2/th  day  of  February,  1869,  five  days 
before  the  inauguration  of  General  Grant,  Congress 
submitted  to  the  States  the  question  of  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  proposition  that  is  now  the  fifteenth 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Its  fate  was  uncertain.  By  the  fourteenth 
amendment  a  State  was  tolerated  in  denying  to 
portions  of  its  adult  male  citizens  the  right  of  suf 
frage  if  it  would  therefor  consent  to  a  proportion 
ate  loss  of  its  representation  in  Congress  and  in  the 
electoral  college.  It  was  an  expedient  adopted 
during  the  transition  period  between  slavery  and 
freedom.  It  was  an  expedient,  moreover,  that 
would  have  been  fruitful  in  controversies  if  it  had 
not  been  abrogated  by  the  ratification  of  the  fif 
teenth  amendment. 

In  addition  to  these  domestic  difficulties  our  re 
lations  with  France  were  disturbed  by  the  recollec 
tion  that  Napoleon  had  attempted  to  place  Maxi- 


160  GENERAL   GRANT 

milian  upon  a  throne  in  Mexico  in  defiance  of  the 
Monroe  doctrine,  and  at  a  moment  when  we  were 
incapable  of  decisive  action  ;  the  abolition  of  slav 
ery  in  the  United  States  and  the  revolutionary  con 
dition  of  affairs  in  Cuba  had  impaired  our  friendly 
relations  with  Spain ;  while  with  Great  Britain 
there  were  causes  of  alienation  and  bitterness 
which,  at  any  moment,  might  have  led  to  the  sus 
pension  of  diplomatic  intercourse. 

This  is  but  an  imperfect  summary  of  the  diffi 
culties,  foreign  and  domestic,  which  confronted 
General  Grant  on  the  day  of  his  inauguration. 
Assuredly  they  were  less  formidable  than  those 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  called  to  meet  in  1861, 
but,  with  that  exception,  they  were  the  most  seri 
ous  difficulties  that  had  waited  upon  any  Adminis 
tration  since  1789. 

Foreseeing  is  the  primary  element  of  statesman 
ship.  This  power  General  Grant  possessed.  In 
his  inaugural  address  he  said :  "  The  country  hav 
ing  just  emerged  from  a  great  rebellion,  many  ques 
tions  will  come  before  it  for  settlement  in  the  next 
four  years  which  preceding  Administrations  have 
never  had  to  deal  with."  He  specified  the  ques 
tions,  and  he  implored  the  country  to  deal  with 
them  "  without  prejudice,  hate,  or  sectional  pride." 
Again  he  said : 

"  A  great  debt  has  been  contracted  in  securing 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN          161 

to  us  and  our  posterity  the  Union.  .  .  .  To  pro 
tect  the  national  honor  every  dollar  of  government 
indebtedness  should  be  paid  in  gold,  unless  other 
wise  expressly  stipulated  in  the  contract.  .  .  .  Let 
it  be  understood  that  no  repudiator  of  one  farthing 
of  our  public  debt  will  be  trusted  in  public  place, 
and  it  will  go  far  toward  strengthening  a  credit 
which  ought  to  be  the  best  in  the  world,  and  will 
ultimately  enable  us  to  replace  the  debt  with  bonds 
bearing  less  interest  than  we  now  pay."  Thus 
clearly  did  he  forecast  the  financial  policy  of  his 
Administration,  and  to  that  policy  his  Administra 
tion  adhered.  At  its  close,  one  fifth  part  of  the 
public  debt  had  been  paid,  the  interest  had  been 
reduced  in  a  greater  ratio,  the  public  credit  was  so 
established  that  bonds  bearing  interest  at  four  per 
cent  were  at  par,  and  the  clamor  for  repudiation 
was  hushed  absolutely. 

"  In  regard  to  foreign  policy,"  he  said,  "  I  would 
deal  with  nations  as  equitable  law  requires  individ 
uals  to  deal  with  each  other."  And  he  then  served 
notice  on  ambassadors,  kings,  and  emperors  in  these 
words  :  "  If  others  depart  from  this  rule  in  their  deal 
ings  with  us,  we  may  be  compelled  to  follow  their  prec 
edent."  There  was  no  departure  from  the  rule, 
and  at  the  close  of  his  Administration  every  inter 
national  question  had  been  adjusted  amicably. 

Thus  and  then,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  his- 


1 62  GENERAL   GRANT 

tory  of  the  republic,  every  foreign  question  affect 
ing  the  interests  or  rights  of  the  nation  was  trans 
ferred  from  the  field  of  diplomacy  and  debate  to 
the  realm  of  fixed  law.  Questions  between  nations 
imply  controversy,  and  controversies  may  and  often 
they  do  develop  into  alienation  and  war. 

As  neither  General  Grant  nor  the  American 
people  put  any  responsibility  upon  the  French  na 
tion  for  the  invasion  of  Mexico,  the  downfall  of 
Napoleon  quieted  all  feeling  on  that  subject. 

A  rigid  observance  of  our  neutrality,  during  the 
rebellion  in  Cuba,  preserved  and  strengthened  our 
friendly  relations  with  Spain,  and  enabled  the  Ad 
ministration  to  protest,  and  with  effect,  against  the 
system  of  slavery  in  the  Spanish  colonies. 

With  England  we  had  one  open  question,  as  old 
as  our  Government,  which  had  given  rise  to  acri 
monious  correspondence  in  many  Administrations. 
The  Island  of  San  Juan,  on  the  Pacific,  had  been 
subject  to  joint  armed  occupancy  for  nearly  a  quar 
ter  of  a  century.  By  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain 
of  the  8th  of  May,  1871,  that  question  was  referred 
to  the  arbitration  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
who  sustained  the  claim  of  the  United  States. 

By  the  same  treaty  the  claims  against  Great 
Britain  growing  out  of  the  destruction  of  our 
commerce  during  the  civil  war,  by  vessels  al 
leged  to  have  been  fitted  out  or  to  have  obtained 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          163 

supplies  in  British  ports,  were  referred  to  arbi 
tration. 

The  value  of  the  arbitration  was  not  so  much 
in  the  adequate  award  that  was  made  by  the  arbi 
trators,  as  in  the  example  and  precedent  furnished 
and  already  followed  by  other  nations  as  a  means 
of  avoiding-  war ;  and  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
reference  by  Germany  and  Spain  of  the  question  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Caroline  Islands  to  the  head 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  But  I  should  be  unjust  to 
the  living,  and  I  should  misinterpret  the  sentiments 
and  opinions  which  General  Grant  entertained  and 
often  expressed,  if  I  did  not  say  that  the  Administra 
tion  and  the  country  were  largely,  most  largely, 
indebted  to  Hamilton  Fish  for  the  successful  com 
pletion  of  these  great  undertakings  in  diplomacy. 
But  I  should  be  equally  unjust  to  General  Grant  if 
I  were  to  omit  the  statement  that  the  policy  of  these 
negotiations  was  in  harmony  with  his  opinions,  or 
that  from  time  to  time  he  contributed  by  sugges 
tion  and  counsel  to  the  result  reached  finally.  Un 
der  our  system  the  President  is  the  responsible 
head  of  the  Government ;  and  while  he  can  not,  in 
the  nature  of  his  duties,  supervise  the  details  of  the 
business  of  the  departments,  he  does  give  direc 
tion  to  the  policy  of  the  Government,  and  most  es 
pecially  in  its  foreign  affairs. 

As  in  those  affairs  nothing  can  be  accomplished 


164  GENERAL   GRANT 

without  his  authority  and  consent,  so  at  the  end  he 
should  receive  the  praise,  as  he  must,  in  case  of 
failure,  bear  the  blame. 

The  treaty  of  1871  provided  for  the  settlement 
of  all  the  pending  questions  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States ;  and  it  was  a  circumstance 
of  unusual  distinction  that  the  terms  of  settlement 
were  at  the  moment  acceptable  to  the  authorities 
and  people  of  both  countries. 

The  treaty  of  peace  of  1783  left  open  for  debate 
and  controversy  three  questions  of  signal  impor 
tance — the  northeastern  boundary,  the  fisheries, 
and  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

The  treaty  of  1794  gave  rise  to  bitter  party  con 
tests  in  the  United  States ;  it  interrupted  our 
friendly  relations  with  France;  and,  finally,  it 
brought  us  to  the  verge  of  war  with  our  ancient 
ally. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  in  1803  was  de 
nounced  as  an  unconstitutional  proceeding,  and 
eminent  statesmen  were  filled  with  alarm  at  the  ex 
tension  of  a  territory  which,  as  they  thought,  was 
already  too  vast  for  one  government. 

The  treaty  of  peace  concluded  at  Ghent,  in  the 
month  of  December,  1814,  left  open  the  question 
on  which  the  War  of  1812  had  been  declared. 

The  Ashburton  -  Webster  treaty  of  1842,  by 
which  the  controversy  in  regard  to  our  north- 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          165 

eastern  boundary  was  ended,  and  the  danger  of 
war  with  Great  Britain  averted,  gave  rise  to  disa 
greeable  criticisms  in  Congress,  and  to  violent  op 
position  in  the  State  of  Maine,  whose  claims  to  ju 
risdiction  were  limited  at  points  on  its  frontier. 

The  treaty  of  1846,  by  which  an  effort  was 
made  to  fix  our  northern  line  from  the  lakes  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  left  to  the  two  countries  the  in 
heritance  of  the  San  Juan  controversy. 

The  treaty  of  1871  with  Great  Britain  takes 
rank  as  the  third  in  importance  of  all  the  treaties  to 
which  the  United  States  has  been  a  party.  First 
of  all,  the  treaty  of  1778  with  France,  of  friendship 
and  alliance  ;  then  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain  of  1783,  by  which  our  independence  was 
acknowledged  and  the  foundations  of  our  future 
greatness  were  laid. 

Nor  in  this  statement  do  I  forget  the  signal  ad 
vantages  which  have  resulted  from  the  treaty  of 
1803,  by  which  the  vast  though  not  well-defined 
Territory  of  Louisiana  was  added  to  the  domain 
of  the  republic. 

Its  acquisition  was  followed  by  some  evils. 
Those  evils  were  temporary  ;  the  advantages  were 
permanent.  But  the  treaty  did  not  originate  any 
rule,  nor  settle  any  question  of  international  law  ; 
it  did  not  quiet  any  controversy  ;  it  did  not  avert 
any  present  pressing  danger.  Nevertheless,  within 


1 66  GENERAL   GRANT 

the  limits  fixed  by  circumstances,  the  Louisiana 
treaty  must  ever  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  wisest 
measures  of  American  diplomacy. 

To  the  world  at  large,  however,  the  treaty  of 
1871  may  prove  to  be  the  most  important  of  any. 

Our  grievance  against  Great  Britain  was  as 
serious  as  any  grievance  possible  that  did  not  arise 
from  the  actual  invasion  of  territory. 

The  allegation  then  was — and  the  judgment  at 
Geneva  sustained  the  allegation — that  Great  Brit 
ain  had  covertly  given  aid  and  comfort  to  the  re 
bellion,  and  that  by  that  aid  our  commerce  had 
been  driven  from  the  ocean,  our  prestige  impaired 
seriously,  and  the  commercial  supremacy  of  Eng 
land  re-established  for  an  indefinite  period  of 
time.  Ancient  hostilities  were  renewed,  tradi 
tional  prejudices  were  revived,  and  the  war  spirit 
of  the  nation  might  have  been  aroused  easily  and 
speedily. 

By  some  the  suggestion  was  made  that  England 
should  be  required  to  withdraw  her  flag  from  this 
continent.  From  others  came  the  suggestion  that 
we  should  lie  in  wait,  and  at  a  favorable  moment 
retaliate  upon  British  commerce. 

To  neither  of  these  suggestions  did  General 
Grant  give  ear  or  voice.  Trained  to  the  art  of 
war,  acquainted  with  its  perils  and  its  horrors,  the 
recipient  of  all  the  renown  that  nations  can  bestow 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          167 

upon  a  successful  military  chieftain,  he  was  more 
than  all  a  man  of  peace. 

From  the  commencement  of  his  Administration 
he  felt  assured  of  an  ultimate  settlement  upon  a 
basis  honorable  to  the  United  States  and  not  dis 
creditable  to  Great  Britain. 

And  may  I  not  turn  aside  for  a  moment  to  in 
dulge  in  the  reflection  that,  under  Providence,  this 
great  example  may  tend  to  the  peace  of  nations  ? 
All  Europe  is  oppressed  by  taxes  and  debts,  and 
for  every  acre  of  her  arable  ground  there  is  an 
armed  man.  This  policy,  if  continued,  can  end 
only  in  general  repudiation  and  universal  disaster. 

It  may  not  be  possible  to  avoid  war.  The  in 
trigues  of  rulers,  the  ambitions  of  successful  poli 
ticians  and  soldiers,  the  passions  of  the  multitude, 
may  involve  nations  in  war ;  but  the  treaty  of  1871 
furnishes  some  security  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 
Or,  if  so  much  can  not  be  assumed,  it  furnishes 
ground  for  the  hope  that  considerate  rulers  will 
imitate  the  example  and  accept  for  guidance  the 
new  rules  of  international  law  which  are  embodied 
in  the  Treaty  of  Washington. 

I  pass  now  to  the  consideration  of  a  topic  on 
which  differences  of  opinion  exist. 

Five  days  before  the  inauguration  of  General 
Grant,  Congress  adopted  a  resolution  by  which  the 
proposition  now  embodied  in  the  fifteenth  amend- 


1 68  GENERAL  GRANT 

ment  to  the  Constitution  was  submitted  to  the 
States. 

In  his  inaugural  address  General  Grant  said  : 
"  The  question  of  suffrage  is  one  which  is  likely  to 
agitate  the  public  so  long  as  a  portion  of  the  citi 
zens  of  the  nation  are  excluded  from  its  privileges 
in  any  State.  It  seems  to  me  very  desirable  that 
this  question  should  be  settled  now,  and  I  enter 
tain  the  hope  and  the  desire  that  it  may  be  by  the 
ratification  of  the  fifteenth  article  of  amendment 
to  the  Constitution." 

General  Grant  was  then  at  the  height  of  his 
power  and  influence  in  the  country.  The  incom 
ing  of  his  Administration  marked  a  new  epoch  in 
public  affairs.  His  political  supporters,  however, 
were  not  agreed  in  advocacy  of  the  measure,  and 
his  opponents  generally  were  hostile  to  the  ratifi 
cation  of  the  amendment.  If  the  President  had 
been  indifferent  to  its  success,  the  proposition 
would  have  been  lost.  On  that  subject,  however, 
his  judgment  was  fixed  and  his  purpose  clear. 
Nor  in  that  case  was  his  judgment  affected  by  the 
opinions  or  wishes  of  others. 

He  did  not  originate  the  measure,  but  his  re 
sponsibility  for  the  ratification  of  the  proposed 
amendment  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  per 
son,  living  or  dead.  His  reason  for  the  recommen 
dation  is  a  living  reason,  and  not  unworthy  present 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          169 

consideration  by  the  whole  country  :  "  The  question 
of  suffrage  is  one  which  is  likely  to  agitate  the  public 
so  long  as  a  portion  of  the  citizens  of  the  nation  are 
excluded  from  its  privileges  in  any  State" 

This  is  at  once  a  prediction  and  a  warning. 
The  voice  of  the  oppressed  will  at  some  time  be 
heard.  The  demand  of  justice  will  at  some  mo 
ment  be  answered.  Slavery  employed  its  vast, 
concentrated  power,  re-enforced  by  the  authority  of 
the  Government,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  in 
an  effort  to  stifle  opinions,  to  suppress  freedom  of 
thought,  of  debate,  and  of  political  action,  and  the 
end  was  an  inglorious  failure  and  a  retribution  of 
blood. 

The  fifteenth  amendment  embodies  the  funda 
mental  idea  of  republican,  American  liberty.  It  is 
the  constitutional  security  for  the  political  equal 
ity  of  men  in  the  States,  and  without  such  equality 
there  can  be  no  equality  of  States  in  the  Union. 
The  injustice  of  men  may  delay,  but  the  final  result 
is  not  doubtful,  nor  even  distant. 

In  these  latter  days  the  South  has  justly  and 
freely  accorded  to  General  Grant  high  praise  for 
the  conditions  and  terms  of  the  surrender  at  Ap- 
pomattox.  The  circumstances  of  that  occasion 
gave  great  dignity  to  the  act,  but  the  act  itself  was 
but  the  natural  expression  of  the  innate  character 
of  General  Grant.  In  the  nature  of  things  the 


1 70  GENERAL   GRANT 

leaders  of  Southern  opinion  could  not  have  under 
stood  the  hero  of  Appomattox  in  the  year  1869; 
but  if  it  had  then  been  given  to  them  to  see  him  as 
he  was,  and  if  they  had  accepted  the  constitutional 
amendments  as  binding  and  everywhere  operative, 
all  of  constitutional  power  that  he  could  have  com 
manded  would  have  been  used  in  aid  of  their  re 
habilitation  as  States,  and  for  the  speedy  develop 
ment  of  their  resources. 

General  Grant  was  free  from  malice,  and  he 
was  kind  and  compassionate  by  nature.  It  is  diffi 
cult  to  comprehend  the  qualities  of  a  man  who 
could  be  moved  by  a  narrative  of  individual  suffer 
ing,  and  who  yet  could  sleep  while  surrounded  by 
the  horrors  of  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness. 

The  solution  of  the  difficulty  must  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  he  possessed  a  philosophical  temper 
ament  which  enabled  him  to  look  upon  the  con 
sequences  of  war  as  of  the  inevitable,  and  to  feel 
that  his  duties,  as  the  organizer  and  director  of 
armies,  required  him  to  suppress  not  only  all  mani 
festations  of  sympathy,  but  also  to  suppress  the  feel 
ing  itself.  And  this  of  a  man  whose  devotion  to 
his  family,  to  his  friends,  to  his  country,  was  abso 
lute. 

It  is  an  error  to  assume  that  General  Grant  en 
joyed  the  exercise  of  power,  but  it  is  true  that  he 
enjoyed  the  possession  of  power  as  the  evidence  of 


THE   SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          171 

the  public  confidence.  And  it  is  an  error  of  the 
gravest  sort  to  assume  that  he  had  an  ambition  for 
the  possession  of  arbitrary  power.  When  the  Ku- 
klux  bands  were  engaged  in  their  work  of  outrage 
and  murder  in  the  South,  he  sent  a  message  to  me 
requesting  me  to  call  at  the  Executive  Mansion. 
When  I  met  him,  he  said  he  had  sent  for  me  to  ac 
company  him  to  the  Capitol.  On  the  way  he  in 
formed  me  that  he  had  promised  Senators  that  he 
would  send  a  message  to  Congress  asking  for  addi 
tional  legislation  for  the  suppression  of  the  Ku-klux 
organizations.  "  But  the  public  mind,"  said  he,  "  is 
already  disturbed  by  the  charge  that  I  am  exercis 
ing  despotic  powers  in  the  South  ;  and  therefore 
I  am  unwilling  to  ask  for  additional  legislation." 
Upon  arriving  at  the  Capitol,  he  sent  for  Senators 
and  members,  to  whom  he  made  known  his  change 
of  opinion.  With  great  unanimity  they  combated 
his  views,  relying  mainly  upon  the  proposition  that 
it  would  be  easier  to  defend  the  needed  legislation 
than  to  defend  the  President  in  the  steps  that  he 
might  be  compelled  to  take  in  the  absence  of  spe 
cific  authority. 

While  the  discussion  went  on,  General  Grant 
turned  to  the  table  and  wrote  a  message  to  Con 
gress  in  favor  of  the  proposed  legislation.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  Secretary  of  State  and  two  other 

members  of  the  Cabinet  had  arrived.     Upon  con- 
12 


1 72  GENERAL   GRANT 

sultation,  one  word  only  in  the  message  was 
changed.  This  circumstance  shows  his  disinclina 
tion  to  seek  power,  and  it  illustrates  his  facility  in 
the  use  of  his  faculties  when  surrounded  by  dis 
tracting  influences. 

In  the  administration  of  a  government  it  hap 
pens  occasionally  that  a  person  in  office,  or  a  per 
son  named  as  a  candidate  for  an  office,  suffers  un 
justly  through  erroneous  or  false  representations 
concerning  him. 

In  General  Grant's  first  term,  a  few  persons 
were  removed  from  office  in  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  under  such  circumstances.  When  a  case  was 
within  his  knowledge,  he  never  abandoned  the  per 
son  until  some  reparation  had  been  made.  Possi 
bly  the  recollection  of  the  wrong  he  had  himself 
suffered  might  have  quickened  his  sensibilities  in 
that  respect. 

And  let  no  one  count  these  incidents  as  trifles, 
for  they  reveal  the  manner  of  man  that  General 
Grant  was. 

For  the  pomp  and  show  of  military  life  he  had  no 
taste  whatever.  He  shunned  military  displays  and 
reviews  while  in  Europe.  When  in  active  service, 
his  dress  was  plain,  and  he  seldom  wore  a  sword. 
He  scarcely  recognized  the  cheers  of  the  soldiers, 
and  he  never  sought  them.  His  knowledge  of 
military  literature  must  have  been  limited.  In 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          173 

many  conversations  that  I  had  with  him  he  never 
spoke  of  any  military  operation  that  did  not  relate 
to  our  civil  war,  or  to  the  war  with  Mexico.  When 
the  citizens  of  Boston  were  about  to  give  a  library 
to  General  Grant,  Mr.  Hooper  sought  to  ascertain, 
quietly,  what  military  books  the  General  owned, 
that  duplicates  might  be  avoided.  He  found  that 
his  library  was  barren  of  military  works. 

His  respectable  but  not  distinguished  standing 
in  his  class  at  West  Point  was  due  to  his  mathemat 
ical  powers,  and  not  to  his  habits  of  study,  nor  to 
his  attainments  in  other  departments.  He  read 
novels,  indulged  his  taste  for  sketching  and  paint 
ing,  of  which  two  specimens  have  been  preserved, 
and  he  scanned  the  newspapers  in  the  hope  that 
Congress  had  abolished  the  school,  that  he  might 
abandon  military  life  without  dishonor. 

He  obeyed  the  order  to  proceed  to  Mexico 
upon  the  idea  that  he  was  bound  in  honor  to  serve 
eight  years  in  the  army.  Otherwise,  he  would 
have  tendered  his  resignation  at  the  close  of  his 
term  at  West  Point. 

General  Grant  was  not  a  soldier  from  taste  ;  his 
education  at  West  Point  was  accepted,  rather  than 
sought ;  and  he  was  not  stimulated  by  the  history 
and  literature  of  war. 

His  appointment  to  the  Military  Academy  was 
an  incident  which  had  no  relation  to  his  wishes  nor 


174  GENERAL   GRANT 

to  the  opinions  of  any  one  as  to  his  fitness  for  a 
military  career.  General  Hamer,  the  member  of 
Congress,  and  Mr.  Jesse  Grant,  the  father,  were 
estranged  from  each  other.  Upon  the  failure  of 
General  Hamer's  first  appointee,  he  named  young 
Grant  as  a  tender  of  reconciliation.  Ignorant  of 
the  names  and  persons  of  Jesse  Grant's  children, 
he  combined  in  the  letter  of  appointment  the 
names  of  two  of  the  boys,  and  thus  gave  to  Gen 
eral  Grant  the  initials  U.  S.,  which  he  was  com 
pelled  to  carry  through  his  course  at  the  Acad 
emy,  though  always  under  protest.  Finally,  Gen 
eral  Grant  accepted  with  satisfaction,  and  as  a 
tribute  to  his  mother,  the  change  which  General 
Hamer  had  made.  This  change  of  name,  though 
wholly  accidental  and  against  the  wishes  of  Gen 
eral  Grant,  was  made  the  occasion  of  serious  at 
tacks  upon  his  character  in  the  campaign  of  1868. 
In  estimating  General  Grant's  claims  to  be  con 
sidered  a  statesman,  it  is  to  be  said,  first,  that  states 
manship  does  not  consist  in  the  ability  to  look  with 
equal  favor  upon  the  contending  parties  in  politics. 
General  Grant  was  a  party  man.  He  was  not  in 
tense  in  his  feelings,  and  he  was  always  moderate 
in  the  expression  of  his  opinions.  In  early  life  he 
was  a  Whig.  He  thought  that  the  war  with  Mexi 
co  was  an  unjust  undertaking,  and  he  took  a  part 
in  it  under  a  sense  of  duty  to  the  Government  that 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          175 

had  given  him  his  education.  He  voted  for  Mr. 
Buchanan  in  1856,  but  for  personal  rather  than  po 
litical  reasons. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war,  he  saw  the  issue,  and 
he  accepted  it. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Washburne,  dated  August, 
1863,  he  said :  "  It  became  patent  to  my  mind  early 
in  the  rebellion  that  the  North  and  South  could 
never  live  at  peace  with  each  other  except  as  one 
nation,  and  that  without  slavery.  As  anxious  as  I 
am  to  see  peace  established,  I  would  not  therefore 
be  willing  to  see  any  settlement  until  this  question 
is  forever  settled." 

This  was  a  view,  not  of  the  soldier,  but  of  the 
statesman,  and  yet,  there  were  men  in  the  North, 
in  August,  1863,  who  were  called  statesmen,  who 
did  not  see  that  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  war, 
and  that  a  permanent  peace  could  be  secured 
only  by  its  destruction. 

If  statesmanship  be  limited  to  those  who  pursue 
their  objects  in  politics  and  government  by  indi 
rect  methods,  then  General  Grant  had  no  claim  to 
be  called  a  statesman.  His  methods  were  as  direct 
in  peace  as  they  were  in  war.  When  he  spoke,  the 
hearer  knew  exactly  what  the  speaker  then  thought. 
And  if  the  subject  of  conversation  concerned  the 
hearer,  he  might  assume,  safely,  that  he  would  be 
advised  at  once  of  any  change  of  opinion  or  purpose. 


176  GENERAL   GRANT 

When  he  thought  it  unwise  to  express  his  views 
or  to  declare  his  opinions  he  had  the  power  to  re 
main  silent.  Reticence,  however,  was  not  the 
habit  of  his  life  nor  the  dictate  of  his  nature,  but 
a  custom  to  which  he  fled  when  his  views  were  not 
matured,  or  when  the  expression  of  them  might 
affect  unfavorably  a  public  measure  or  the  for 
tunes  of  an  individual. 

He  avoided  councils  of  war,  but  by  informal 
conferences  he  gathered  the  views  and  received 
the  suggestions  of  the  officers  about  him.  Conse 
quently,  the  orders  that  he  gave  did  not  overrule 
the  publicly-expressed  opinions  of  any  of  his  asso 
ciates. 

He  had  neither  obstinacy  nor  pride  of  opinion. 
At  a  critical  moment  in  our  foreign  affairs  the 
President  had  received  the  impression  that  a  new 
policy  in  an  important  particular  would  be  wise,  or 
he  was  at  least  considering  the  measure,  and  he 
brought  it  to  the  attention  of  the  Cabinet.  When 
two  members  had  expressed  opinions  adverse  to 
the  suggestion,  and  given  their  reasons,  the  Presi 
dent  introduced  a  new  topic,  and  he  never  again 
referred  to  the  subject. 

In  a  limited  sense  he  carried  military  ideas  into 
civil  affairs.  When  and  where  he  conferred  power 
he  reposed  trust  and  placed  responsibility. 

Neither  as  General  of  the  Army,  nor  as  Presi- 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN. 

dent  of  the  United  States,  did  he  assume  to  himself 
credit  for  what  had  been  done  by  others.  Indeed, 
he  often  accorded  to  his  subordinates  a  larger 
share  of  credit  than  they  claimed.  And  there  is 
no  surer  test  than  this  of  real  greatness. 

Those  who  reach  results  only  by  dull,  continu 
ous  labor  are  like  the  men  who  gather  wealth  by 
slow  and  tedious  processes.  Every  gain  stands  for 
so  much  toil — burdensome  toil,  never  to  be  forgot 
ten.  The  great  things  of  life  are  the  products  of 
truly  great  men.  The  labor  with  them  is  slight ; 
the  recollection  is  not  husbanded ;  and  there  is  al 
ways  present  the  consciousness  that  other  equally 
important  results  might  be  attained  easily.  Such 
men  are  not  misers  of  deeds ;  they  are  not  jealous  ; 
they  are  not  harassed  by  the  fear  of  rivals.  They 
concede  much  to  others,  and  they  demand  for 
themselves  only  what  is  freely  accorded. 

If  we  pause  here,  and  exclude  from  our 
thoughts  the  Administrations  of  Washington  and 
Lincoln,  will  General  Grant  suffer  as  a  civil  magis 
trate  by  a  comparison  with  any  other  President  of 
the  Republic  ? 

As  a  man,  who  more  humane,  more  modest, 
more  considerate  of  the  rights  of  the  humble  ? 

As  a  magistrate,  who  more  just  in  small  things 
as  well  as  great,  or  more  devoted  to  peace,  or 
more  advanced  in  his  ideas  of  Indian  policy,  or 


i;8  GENERAL   GRANT 

more  scrupulous  in  the  assertion  of  every  national 
right,  or  more  vigorous  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
public  faith,  or  more  jealous  of  the  honor  of  the 
country  ? 

And  which  of  all  the  other  Administrations  has 
done  as  much  to  diminish  the  public  burdens,  to 
lift  up  and  to  sustain  the  public  credit ;  and  which 
of  them  all  has  done  as  much  to  ameliorate  the  bar 
barism  of  war,  or  by  a  conspicuous  example  to 
avert  war  itself  ? 

And,  except  Washington  and  Lincoln,  who  of 
all  the  long  line  of  Presidents,  to  so  great  an  extent, 
possessed  the  confidence  and  commanded  the  re 
spect  of  princes  and  peoples  throughout  the  civil 
ized  world? 

In  one  particular  General  Grant  was  more  fort 
unate  in  his  experience  than  either  General  Wash 
ington  or  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  visited  the  principal 
countries  of  the  world,  and  he  saw  and  conversed 
with  their  rulers.  In  foreign  lands  he  made  ad 
dresses  to  public  bodies,  and,  although  he  was  not 
an  orator,  and  although  he  was  destitute  of  art  or 
rhetoric  in  speech,  he  never  uttered  a  sentence  that 
an  enemy  could  criticise  or  that  a  friend  would 
blush  to  repeat.  Educated  by  his  knowledge  of 
other  forms  of  government  and  by  an  acquaintance 
with  rulers — greater,  I  imagine,  than  was  ever  en 
joyed  by  any  other  person — he  returned  from  his 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          179 

travels  not  less  an  American  in  habit,  in  sentiment, 
in  devotion  to  the  country,  than  when  he  left  Ga 
lena  in  1861. 

In  the  literary-political  use  of  the  word,  General 
Grant  was  not  a  statesman.  He  was  not  learned 
in  international  law ;  he  was  not  acquainted  with 
the  diplomatic  history  of  Europe,  nor  can  it  be 
claimed  that  he  was  conversant  with  the  diplomatic 
history  of  his  own  country. 

He  could  not  have  originated  and  he  would  not 
have  accepted  any  process  or  scheme  of  indirection 
in  the  business  of  government.  His  claim  to  states 
manship  rests  where  his  military  fame  rests.  His 
qualities  were  practical.  He  saw  things  as  they 
were.  There  was  no  glamour  before  his  eyes,  and 
he  estimated  the  results  of  passing  events  with  a 
degree  of  accuracy  that  seemed  prophetic.  But, 
more  than  all,  his  sense  of  justice  could  not  be 
warped.  Therefore  he  exacted  of  others  only 
what  they  were  bound  to  yield,  and  he  was  ready 
to  grant  to  others  what  was  right  without  delay 
and  without  debate.  His  statesmanship  had  no 
other  art  or  magic  in  it  than  what  may  be  found  in 
the  neighborhood  relations  of  an  honest  country- 
people. 

In  General  Grant's  military  career  there  were 
great  days — steps  by  which  he  ascended  to  the 
heights  at  once  so  conspicuous  and  dazzling. 


180  GENERAL   GRANT 

And  begone  forever  the  absurd  idea  that  he  was 
the  child  of  luck,  the  favorite  of  Fortune ;  and 
begone  the  notion  that,  when  he  came  to  places 
of  power  and  trust,  places  of  power  and  trust 
were  free  from  responsibility,  peril,  or  danger  of 
ruin !  For  twelve  years  in  war  and  in  peace,  and 
for  a  period  of  three  years  and  more  when  there 
was  neither  war  nor  peace,  he  stood  in  elevated 
and  responsible  places,  and  always  exhibiting  un 
bounded  patriotism  with  adequate  ability  in  peace, 
and  an  absolute  supremacy  of  generalship  in 
war. 

These  are  not  the  accidents  of  any  man's  life. 
They  are  the  natural  results  of  innate  power. 

If,  then,  General  Grant's  successful  military  ca 
reer  was  not  an  accident,  it  may  be  possible  to  dis 
cover  some  of  the  qualities  or  faculties  on  which 
his  success  was  based.  First  of  all,  his  skill  to 
plan  a  movement  or  a  campaign,  and  his  ability  to 
execute  his  plan,  were  in  harmony.  The  ability  to 
plan  with  coolness  and  care,  and  the  power  to  exe 
cute  with  energy,  celerity,  and  continuing  fortitude, 
are  not  often  combined  in  the  same  person.  In  all 
these  qualities  General  Grant  was  highly  endowed. 
His  mind  was  occupied  during  the  winter  of  1862 
-'63  with  the  plan  of  the  campaign  which  ended 
with  the  commencement  of  the  siege  of  Vicksburg 
in  May,  1863.  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea  was 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          181 

forecast  in  a  letter  to  General  Sherman  dated  the 
4th  day  of  April,  1864. 

Next,  his  topographical  faculty  was  only  less 
than  real  genius.  In  a  military  sense,  his  cam 
paigns  were  in  an  unknown  country.  The  region 
south  of  the  Ohio  and  Potomac  was,  in  a  large 
part,  destitute  of  good  roads.  It  was  covered  by 
forests  miles  in  extent  and  traversed  by  ranges  of 
mountains  in  some  sections  and  by  rivers  and  bay 
ous  in  others.  No  just  comparison  can  be  insti 
tuted  between  military  operations  in  Europe, 
where  well-built  roads  are  described  in  books  and 
laid  down  on  maps,  and  kindred  operations  in  the 
bottom-lands  of  the  Mississippi,  or  in  the  wilder 
nesses  and  swamps  of  Virginia,  or  the  mountain- 
regions  of  Tennessee  and  Alabama. 

The  results  indicate  that  General  Grant  could 
estimate  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  accuracy  the 
value  of  a  given  number  of  men  for  defensive  or 
offensive  war.  Very  rarely  was  it  true  that  his 
force  at  any  given  point  was  inadequate,  and  not 
often  was  there  an  excess.  At  the  close  of  a 
day,  whether  his  forces  had  been  hard  pressed  or 
were  victorious,  his  judgment  was  accurate,  usu 
ally,  as  to  the  condition  of  the  opposing  army. 
Added  to  these  high  qualities,  and  in  addition  to 
a  power,  quality,  or  faculty,  which  can  not  be  de 
scribed  nor  specified,  he  had  faith  in  the  justice  of 


182  GENERAL   GRANT 

the  national  cause  and  faith  in  its  ultimate  tri 
umph. 

His  experience  in  Mexico  had  enlarged,  and, 
without  exaggeration,  we  may  say  that  it  had  per 
fected,  his  training  at  West  Point.  He  served  un 
der  General  Taylor  and  then  under  General  Scott. 
In  his  own  language,  he  was  in  as  many  battles  in 
Mexico  as  it  was  possible  for  any  one  man  to  be  in. 
On  several  occasions  he  distinguished  himself  by 
his  courage,  and  by  manifestations  of  that  tact  for 
which  he  became  conspicuous  in  the  war  of  the  re 
bellion.  He  left  Mexico  with  an  exalted  opinion  of 
the  military  abilities  of  Taylor  and  Scott,  and  that 
opinion  he  retained  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  has 
left,  however,  one  criticism  upon  the  conduct  of 
the  war  in  Mexico.  General  Scott  moved  his  army 
from  Vera  Cruz  in  four  divisions,  a  day  apart,  and 
upon  the  same  line.  This  order  General  Grant 
criticises  ;  but  he  also  criticises  all  his  own  cam 
paigns,  and  savs,  finally,  that  the  campaign  against 
Vicksburg  is  the  only  one  which  in  his  opinion 
could  not  have  been  improved.  General  Grant 
made  mistakes,  but  it  may  not  be  judicious  for  a 
civilian  who  never  saw  a  battle,  or  for  an  officer 
who  never  won  a  battle,  to  marshal  the  mistakes  ol 
a  general  who  never  lost  a  battle. 

When  the  blood  of  the  men  of  Middlesex  and 
Essex  was  shed  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  General 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          183 

Grant  was  eight  days  less  than  thirty-nine  years  of 
age.  President  Lincoln  had  already  issued  his  call 
for  seventy-five  thousand  men.  General  Grant  re 
sponded  to  that  call,  and  by  his  neighbors  and 
townsmen,  although  he  was  not  a  voter,  he  was 
chosen  to  preside  at  a  public  meeting.  By  the  aid 
of  a  prompter,  but  with  a  stammering  tongue,  he 
was  able  to  state  the  purpose  for  which  the  people 
had  convened.  That  was  his  first  great  day.  Not 
distinguished  by  anything  that  he  said  or  did. 
Not  distinguished  by  his  tender  of  service  to  the 
country.  Tens  on  tens  of  thousands  were  then 
tendering  their  services  and  crowding  forward  for 
duty.  To  him  and  to  the  country  it  was  a  great 
day  in  the  circumstance  that  it  made  possible  his 
future  career  of  usefulness  and  glory.  In  a  mili 
tary  sense  he  was  already  a  veteran.  He  had  had 
fifteen  years  of  training  and  service.  But  he  made 
no  demand  for  place ;  none  for  consideration  on 
that  account.  No  claim — no  pretension.  His 
neighbors  and  the  authorities  were  left  to  form 
their  own  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  experience. 
But  that  day  he  gained  a  place  to  stand,  and  from 
it  he  moved  the  world. 

He  declined  the  captaincy  of  the  company 
raised  at  Galena,  but  he  went  with  it  to  Spring 
field,  where  he  was  employed  first  in  instructing  a 
clerk  in  the  army  methods  of  keeping  accounts, 


1 84  GENERAL  GRANT 

and  then  in  mustering  and  drilling  the  Illinois  regi 
ments  for  duty.  Toward  the  end  of  May  he  made 
a  tender  of  his  services  to  the  country  through 
Lorenzo  Thomas,  then  Adjutant -General  of  the 
Army  of  the  United  States.  The  letter  was 
neither  answered  nor  filed,  and  only  recently  was 
it  rescued  from  the  rubbish  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  !  General  Pope  offered  his  aid,  but  General 
Grant  declined,  saying  that  he  would  not  receive 
indorsements  for  the  privilege  of  fighting  for  his 
country.  Upon  the  second  call  for  three  hundred 
thousand  men,  Governor  Yates  commissioned  Grant 
as  colonel  of  the  Twenty-first  Illinois  Regiment. 

For  the  purposes  of  discipline  the  colonel 
marched  his  regiment  from  Springfield  to  Quincy. 
From  thence  it  was  moved  to  Mexico,  Missouri, 
where  Grant  came  to  the  command  of  three  regi 
ments.  Just  then,  and  upon  an  inspiration  and 
without  General  Grant's  knowledge,  and  in  viola 
tion  of  the  civil-service  rules,  the  Illinois  delega 
tion  in  Congress  recommended  his  promotion  to 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general. 

His  career  had  now  commenced.  He  was  as 
signed  to  a  military  district  and  to  the  command  of 
an  army  larger  than  that  of  General  Scott  when  he 
entered  the  city  of  Mexico — an  army  of  brave 
men,  but  of  men  not  yet  disciplined  to  the  hard 
ships  and  duties  of  military  life. 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          185 

The  battle  of  Belmont  was  fought  the  7th  day 
of  November.  That  was  Grant's  second  great  day. 
Then  his  qualities  as  a  commander  were  for  the 
first  time  tested.  His  army  was  composed  of  raw 
recruits — brave  men,  stimulated  to  the  verge  of  in 
subordination,  by  an  anxious  resolve  to  engage  the 
enemy.  General  Grant  had  two  purposes  in  view : 
First,  to  destroy  the  encampment  at  Belmont  as  a 
means  of  preventing  the  re-enforcement  of  Sterling 
Price,  the  Confederate  commander  in  Missouri ; 
and,  second,  to  discipline  his  troops  by  actual  expe 
rience  in  war.  The  battle  of  Belmont  was  bravely 
won  ;  but,  when  won,  the  discipline  of  the  army  wras 
lost,  and  only  the  genius  of  the  commander  saved 
it  from  a  disgraceful  defeat  that  would  have  ended 
in  its  dispersion  or  capture.  General  Grant  was 
the  last  man  to  leave  the  field,  and  he  escaped  capt 
ure  by  running  his  horse  from  the  bank  of  the 
river  to  the  boat  across  a  single  gangway-plank. 

Grant's  winter-quarters  were  in  Cairo,  at  the 
junction  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  Rivers. 
The  Confederate  troops  still  occupied  Columbus, 
Kentucky,  a  few  miles  below  Cairo.  There  were 
expeditions  during  the  winter,  and  in  the  month  of 
January  General  Grant  reached  the  conclusion  that 
the  true  line  of  operations  was  up  the  Tennessee 
and  Cumberland  Rivers,  on  which  were  situated 
Forts  Henry  and  Donelson.  That  he  might  ob- 


1 86  GENERAL   GRANT 

tain  the  sanction  and  authority  of  General  Halleck, 
then  in  command  of  the  department,  he  went  to  St. 
Louis  and  attempted  to  lay  his  plan  before  him. 
Without  waiting  for  a  full  statement,  General  Hal 
leck  cut  short  the  conversation,  as  if  the  plan  were 
preposterous.  Before  the  end  of  the  month,  how 
ever,  General  Grant  obtained  the  co-operation  of 
Admiral  Foote,  and  then  Halleck  yielded  to  their 
joint  request.  In  less  than  twenty  days  thereafter 
Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  had  fallen  under  the 
combined  operations  of  the  army  and  the  navy. 
By  the  surrender  of  Donelson  about  fifteen  thou 
sand  men  became  prisoners  of  war,  and  all  the 
material  of  the  fort  fell  into  our  hands.  The 
Confederate  loss  by  capture,  death,  and  deser 
tion,  could  not  have  been  less  than  twenty  thou 
sand  men. 

That  was  Grant's  third  great  day.  Great  in 
the  development  of  the  character  of  the  man,  and 
great  in  the. position  attained.  His  letter  to  Gen 
eral  Buckner,  in  answer  to  the  proposition  for  an 
armistice,  reads  like  the  letter  of  Cromwell  to  the 
parsons  of  Edinburgh,  and  it  is  the  most  remark 
able  production  to  be  found  in  military  literature 
since  the  three  memorable  words  of  Julius  Caesar: 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          187 

HEADQUARTERS,  ARMY  IN  THE  FIELD, 

CAMP  NEAR  FORT  DONELSON, 

February  /6,  1862. 

General  S.  B.  BUCKNER,  Confederate  Army : 

SIR:  Yours  of  this  date,  proposing  armistice 
and  appointment  of  commissioners  to  settle  terms 
of  capitulation,  is  just  received.  No  terms  except 
an  immediate  and  unconditional  surrender  can  be 
accepted.  I  propose  to  move  immediately  upon 
your  works. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
U.  S.  GRANT,  Brigadier-General. 

That  day  General  Grant  passed  out  from  the 
ranks  of  the  merely  trained  soldiers,  and  by  uni 
versal  acclaim  he  was  admitted  into  the  small  body 
of  tested,  trusted,  and  successful  commanders. 

From  that  day  forth  he  was  to  the  nation  the 
military  chieftain  on  whom  implicit  reliance  could 
be  placed.  And  from  that  day  forth  the  troops 
under  his  immediate  command  never  apprehended 
a  disastrous  defeat,  whatever  might  be  the  hard 
ships  and  struggles  and  losses  of  a  day  or  of  a 
campaign. 

Then  for  the  first  time  the  magnitude  of  things 
already  accomplished  revealed  to  General  Grant 
the  possibilities  of  the  future — a  future,  filled  with 


1 88  GENERAL   GRANT 

greater  events  even,  then  opened,  though  indis 
tinctly,  before  him. 

Of  all  his  countrymen,  one  only,  as  far  as  we 
have  knowledge,  and  he  his  superior  officer,  hesi 
tated  to  award  due  honor  for  what  had  been  done, 
and  he,  upon  the  poor  pretext  that  General  Grant 
had  neglected  to  report  the  force  and  condition 
of  his  command,  suspended  him  from  duty. 

The  4th  day  of  March,  1862,  General  Halleck 
suspended  General  Grant;  and  on  the  I3th  day  of 
the  same  month  of  March,  with  something  of  ex 
planation  and  something  of  apology,  he  restored 
him  to  his  command.  Those  nine  days  were  sad, 
dreary  days,  when  tears  stood  in  the  eyes  of  the 
discarded  chieftain,  but  from  his  lips  there  was  not 
one  word  of  complaint. 

The  battle  of  Shiloh  began  Sunday,  the  6th  of 
April,  and,  although  at  the  close  of  that  day  of 
blood  our  troops  were  still  upon  the  field,  our 
lines  had  been  forced  back  toward  the  river,  and 
a  mile  of  ground  had  been  lost.  General  Grant 
was  lame  and  on  crutches,  from  an  injury  caused 
by  the  fall  of  his  horse ;  but  he  passed  the  night 
under  a  tree,  exposed  to  a  drenching  rain,  because 
he  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  the  wounded  and 
dving  men  who  were  sheltered  under  a  roof  near  by. 

At  the  end  of  the  next  day  a  decisive  victory 
had  been  achieved. 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          189 

Important  events  followed. 

General  Halleck  assumed  the  command  of  the 
army  in  the  field.  In  a  few  weeks  thereafter  he 
was  made  general-iil-chief.  He  then  transferred 
his  headquarters  to  the  city  of  Washington,  but 
it  was  not  until  the  25th  of  October  that  General 
Grant  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  de 
partment.  Then  for  the  first  time  was  he  in  a 
position  to  devise  and  to  act  upon  a  comprehen 
sive  plan. 

The  rebel  garrisons  in  Kentucky  had  then  been 
abandoned.  The  Cumberland  River  was  open  to 
a  point  above  Nashville,  and  the  Tennessee  was 
in  our  possession  from  its  mouth  to  Eastport. 

Much  had  been  accomplished,  but  the  Missis 
sippi  River  was  still  held  by  the  rebels  at  Vicks- 
burg  and  Port  Hudson.  After  the  battle  and  vic 
tory  at  Corinth,  in  October,  the  movement  on 
Vicksburg  began. 

The  winter  was  spent  in  unsuccessful  attempts 
to  overcome  the  impediments  interposed  by  the 
streams  and  bayous  on  the  east  and  on  the  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  but  in  that  winter,  filled 
with  toil,  and  suffering,  and  sacrifices,  the  final 
and  successful  plan  of  operations  was  matured. 

General  Grant  originated  the  plan,  and  he  be 
lieved  in  the  possibility  of  its  successful  execution. 
And  never  was  a  commander  better  supported  by 


GENERAL   GRANT 

his  subordinates ;  and  never,  perhaps,  was  there  a 
body  of  men,  the  officers,  the  rank  and  file,  more 
united  or  more  resolute  in  the  purpose  to  accom 
plish  what  had  been  undertaken. 

The  passage  of  the  batteries  on  the  Mississippi 
River  at  Vicksburg  by  the  gunboats  and  trans 
ports,  the  march  of  the  army  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  river,  the  bridging  of  bayous,  the  crossing  of 
the  Mississippi,  the  landing  upon  the  river-bottom 
between  Bruinsburg  and  Grand  Gulf,  when  the 
forces  of  the  enemy  within  a  circuit  of  fifty  miles 
numbered  not  less  than  sixty  thousand  men,  the 
battle  and  capture  of  the  Highlands  of  Port  Gib 
son,  the  battles  and  victories  of  Raymond,  of  Jack 
son,  of  Champion's  Hill,  of  Black  River  Bridge, 
the  final  investment  of  Vicksburg,  and  all  between 
the  1 6th  of  April  and  the  iQth  day  of  May,  con 
stitute  a  dramatic  chapter  in  military  history  for 
which  no  parallel  can  be  found  in  the  annals  of 
modern  warfare. 

To  be  sure,  Vicksburg  had  not  fallen,  but  its 
capture  was  made  certain.  The  Confederate  forces 
had  been  divided.  One  army  was  within  the  forti 
fications  of  the  town,  and  soon  to  be  subject  to  a 
close  siege  on  all  sides.  The  other  army  was  to 
the  south  of  the  Big  Black  River,  where  it  was 
confronted  by  General  Sherman  at  the  head  of  an 
adequate  force. 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          \gi 

In  a  few  weeks,  at  farthest,  Vicksburg  and  the 
army  of  Pemberton  must  surrender ;  the  Missis 
sippi  River  be  opened  for  military  purposes ;  the 
Confederacy  divided,  the  supplies  for  the  armies 
of  the  East  diminished  materially,  and  the  down 
fall  of  the  Confederacy  itself  made  certain  beyond 
the  possibilities  of  chance  or  fate. 

The  surrender  of  Vicksburg-,  the  4th  day  of 
July,  1863,  brought  that  memorable  campaign  to 
a  close;  and  with  its  close  and  the  victory  at 
Gettysburg  all  thought  of  failure  was  banished 
from  the  minds  of  the  loyal  citizens  of  the  North. 

From  this  we  turn  now  to  his  next  great  day. 

The  fatal  battle  of  Chickamauga  was  fought  on 
the  iQth  and  2oth  days  of  September,  1863.  Rose- 
crans  retreated  with  his  disorganized  army  to 
Chattanooga,  soon  to  be  followed  by  General 
George  H.  Thomas,  who  had  held  his  ground 
at  Chickamauga.  The  Confederates  established 
themselves  on  Lookout  Mountain,  at  the  south 
west  and  west  of  the  town,  and  also  upon  Mis 
sionary  Ridge,  which  commanded  the  valley  from 
the  east  and  northeast. 

General  Bragg,  then  in  command  of  the  Con 
federate  forces,  constructed  immediately  a  line  of 
earthworks  from  the  northerly  point  on  Lookout 
Mountain  to  a  point  on  Missionary  Ridge  near  its 
southwestern  extremity,  and  thence  along  the 


1 92  GENERAL  GRANT 

Ridge  to  the  north  end.  To  the  west  was  the 
long  line  of  the  Tennessee  River,  disappearing  at 
the  base  of  Lookout  Mountain. 

To  the  north  was  the  only  open  passage 
through  which  supplies  were  received  from  Nash 
ville  over  a  devastated  country  and  by  a  circui 
tous  route  not  less  than  sixty  miles  in  length.  By 
the  2Oth  of  October  the  army  was  on  half-rationst 
the  animals  were  exhausted,  and  many  thousands 
had  died  of  starvation.  A  retreat  under  such  cir 
cumstances  would  have  resulted  in  the  loss  of  the 
army.  At  that  moment  the  Department  of  the 
Mississippi  was  created,  which  included  all  the  ter 
ritory  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  except  the  depart 
ment  of  General  Banks  in  the  southwest,  and  Gen 
eral  Grant  was  placed  in  command.  General  Rose- 
crans  was  relieved  immediately,  and  General 
George  H.  Thomas  was  assigned  to  his  place. 

General  Grant  reached  Chattanooga  on  the 
23d  day  of  October,  at  nightfall.  At  that  time 
the  Confederate  authorities,  civil  and  military,  had 
no  doubt  about  the  surrender  of  our  army  in  a  few 
days,  and  upon  such  terms  as  they  should  dictate. 
This  was  the  opinion  of  Jefferson  Davis,  who  had 
visited  the  theatre  of  war  the  15th  day  of  October. 
On  the  24th  of  October,  the  day  after  Grant's  ar 
rival,  the  orders  of  detail  were  issued  for  raising 
the  siege  of  Chattanooga  ;  and,  on  the  27th,  the  or- 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          193 

ders  had  been  so  far  executed  that  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland  was  free  to  receive  supplies  and 
re-enforcements,  and  as  early  as  the  2Qth  of  October 
it  was  on  an  independent  footing,  with  an  abun 
dance  of  supplies  and  material  of  war,  and  prepay 

ins:  for  an  offensive  movement.     That  movement 
& 

was  made,  and  it  terminated  in  the  battle  and  vic^ 
tory  of  Missionary  Ridge.  General  Grant's  own 
words  are  not  an  exaggeration  :  "  It  would  have 
been  a  victory  to  have  got  the  army  away  from 
Chattanooga  safely.  It  was  manifold  greater  to 
defeat,  and  nearly  destroy,  the  besieging  army." 

The  fruits  of  the  victory  were  six  thousand 
prisoners,  forty  pieces  of  artillery,  seven  thousand 
stands  of  small-arms,  and  large  quantities  of  other 
material  of  war. 

The  siege  of  Knoxville  was  raised  and  Burnside 
was  set  free,  without  a  struggle,  and  without  other 
assistance.  Is  it  too  much  to  claim  that  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland  was  saved  by  the  presence  and 
genius  of  General  Grant?  And,  if  not,  then  the 
day  that  he  raised  the  siege  of  Chattanooga  was  a 
memorable  day  in  his  career. 

He  then  came  to  the  command  of  all  the  armies 
of  the  republic — numbering  a  million  men — a 
greater  force  than  ever  elsewhere  or  at  any  other 
time  recognized  the  rule  and  leadership  of  one 
man.  Proportionately  great  was  the  field  of  opera- 


I94  GENERAL   GRANT 

tions.  Its  boundaries  were  the  line  ot  the  Missis 
sippi  River,  the  frontier  from  beyond  the  Missis 
sippi  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  then  along  the  coast 
of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Texas, 
with  one  army  penetrating  to  the  center  of  the 
Confederacy  and  others  moving  upon  and  besieg 
ing  Richmond  ;  and  all  without  instructions  from 
the  President  or  War  Department,  and  all  without 
the  aid  of  a  council  of  war.  The  end  was  the 
surrender  of  Lee  and  the  army  of  brave  men  who 
had  stood  at  the  gateway  of  the  Confederacy  for 
four  years  :  Richmond  fell,  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion  were  dispersed,  and  the  Union  was 
saved. 

That  was  the  great  day  of  General  Grant's  life, 
and  of  the  results  of  that  clay's  doings  no  power, 
that  is  human  merely,  can  form  a  just  estimate. 
He  lived  to  see  the  Union  he  had  so  contributed  to 
save  compacted  and  in  a  good  degree  harmonized. 
Not  only  had  the  institution  of  slavery  disap 
peared,  but  the  ancient  faith  in  the  economy  and 
rightfulness  of  slavery  had  disappeared  also.  Of 
all  the  millions  of  his  fellow-citizens  there  was  not 
one  in  power  or  station  who  ventured  to  avow  his 
hostility  to  the  Union,  or  to  the  fundamental  insti 
tutions  of  the  Government  under  which  we  are 
living.  These  are  the  fruits  of  a  victory  to  be  en 
joyed  by  us  and  by  our  successors  through  many, 


THE  SOLDIER  AND  STATESMAN.          195 

many  generations — fruits  to  be  shared  equally  by 
the  vanquished  and  by  the  victors. 

From  that  day  forth  the  United  States  has  been 
recognized  as  one  of  the  leading  nations  of  the 
world.  Upon  the  opening  of  the  rebellion  in  1861, 
the  enemies  of  republican  institutions  accepted  the 
event  with  satisfaction,  as  furnishing  proof  conclu 
sive  that  such  institutions  could  not  be  maintained. 
The  surrender  of  Lee  in  1865  banished  that  idea 
from  the  minds  of  statesmen  the  world  over. 

The  tendency  now  everywhere  is  to  local  self- 
government,  the  aggregation  of  small  states,  the 
concentration  of  powers  for  national  and  interna 
tional  purposes,  coupled  with  a  system  of  responsi 
bility  on  the  part  of  the  Executive. 

It  was  the  theory  of  dynastic  rulers  that  pop 
ular  governments  were  limited  to  small  states. 
That  error  has  now  passed  away,  but  by  all  former 
generations  of  European  statesmen  the  United 
States  wras  not  treated  as  an  exception. 

At  present  the  attention  of  the  world  is  fixed 
upon  our  system  of  government.  Here  institutions 
are  free ;  here  everywhere  there  is  local  self-gov 
ernment  ;  here,  generally,  the  equal  political  rights 
of  men  are  acknowledged  ;  here  our  institutions 
recognize  no  distinctions  of  race,  and  the  thought 
of  such  distinctions  is  fast  disappearing  from  the 
public  mind  ;  and  here  the  central  Government  is 


196  GENERAL   GRANT 

endowed  with  ample  powers  for  every  exigency 
of  national  life.  Here  every  man  is  a  citizen,  and 
every  citizen  is  at  the  same  time  a  member  of  the 
ruling  class  and  a  member  of  the  subject  class. 
The  germs  of  this  policy  of  national  life,  minute  in 
its  details  and  comprehensive  in  its  scope,  are 
found  in  the  institutions  of  the  colonies  North  and 
South,  but  their  development  was  delayed  until 
the  Confederacy  was  overthrown,  slavery  de 
stroyed,  and  the  extreme  doctrine  of  State  rights 
had  perished. 

The  new  Government  rests  upon  co-ordinate 
political  propositions — the  equality  of  men  in  the 
States  and  the  equality  of  States  in  the  Union. 
The  old  Constitution  recognized  the  equality  of 
States,  but  there  was  no  national  citizenship  and  no 
recognition  of  the  equality  of  men. 

Neither  in  principle  nor  in  public  policy  was 
the  change  as  important  from  the  rule  of  George 
the  Third  to  the  Administration  of  General  Wash 
ington,  as  from  the  Administration  of  James  Buch 
anan  to  that  of  General  Grant  at  the  commence 
ment  of  his  second  term. 

In  this  later  period  old  ideas  disappeared  ;  old 
institutions  crumbled  and  fell ;  new  ideas  were  de 
veloped,  and  new  institutions  were  created. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Confederacy  made  possi 
ble  all  these  changes.  The  future  of  America  was 


THE  SOLDIER  AN&  STATESMAN.  19; 

shaped  by  that  event.  The  nation  accepted  the 
new  ideas,  it  created  new  institutions,  and  it  entered 
upon  a  new  career. 

It  is  not  for  this  day  nor  for  this  generation 
to  estimate  General  Grant's  share  in  contributing 
to  these  events  so  accomplished. 

The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  made 
practical,  absolute,  and  irreversible  by  the  victories 
of  General  Grant.  The  Proclamation  of  Emanci 
pation  made  the  victories  of  General  Grant  possi 
ble.  Thus,  by  the  combined  labors  of  Lincoln  and 
Grant,  the  system  of  slavery  was  abolished,  and  the 
Union  re-established  on  the  basis  of  the  equality  of 
men  in  the  States  and  the  equality  of  States  in  the 
Union.  Thus  are  they  united  in  fame,  and  thus 
are  they  destined  to  a  common  inheritance  of 
glory. 

History  will  reject  the  language  of  eulogy,  but 
it  must  deal  with  the  important  events  which  sig 
nalize  General  Grant's  military  career.  And  can 
it  fail  to  place  him  with  the  small  number  of  great 
generals  since  Julius  Caesar  ? 

The  successes  of  life  are  not  accidents.  For 
four  years  General  Grant  was  tested  by  the  se 
verest  ordeals.  Other  men  might  have  saved  the 
country  ;  but  he  only  had  the  opportunity  and  the 
capacity  to  save  the  country.  If,  upon  the  record 
of  General  Grant,  we  deny  to  him  intellectual  pow- 


198  GENERAL  GRANT. 

er  of  a  high  order,  as  well  as  genius  in  affairs  of 
war,  we  have  then  no  longer  a  test  of  greatness  or 
superiority  among  men. 

Thus  have  I  attempted  to  communicate  my  im 
pressions  concerning  General  Grant.  I  knew  him 
when  he  was  in  health,  in  prosperity,  and  in  power. 
I  knew  him  when  he  was  borne  down  by  adversity 
and  assailed  by  a  fatal  disease.  In  all  conditions  he 
was  the  same  man.  No  change  of  fortune  could 
change  his  character.  He  was  imperturbable  in 
spirit,  obedient  to  the  demands  of  justice,  constant 
and  faithful  in  his  friendships,  and  to  the  last  he 
was  devoted  to  the  country  that  he  had  served 
and  saved. 


GENERAL  GRANT— THIRD  TERM* 

IN  politics,  morals,  and  law  there  is  a  field  for 
presumption.  The  field  is  a  limited  one,  usually, 
but  within  it  the  conclusions  drawn  are  as  trust 
worthy  as  are  those  which,  in  the  broader  field  of 
testimony,  rest  upon  positive  proof. 

In  politics,  and  in  the  light  of  this  day,  no  pre 
sumption  can  be  more  just  and  reasonable  than  the 
presumption  that  every  Democrat  is  opposed  to 
the  election  of  General  Grant  to  the  presidency  for 
a  third  time.  And  this  opposition  by  Democrats 
is  not  on  account  of  the  example  of  Washington,  or 
of  the  tradition  of  a  century,  or  of  the  resolution  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  1875;  for  they 
were  quite  as  fiercely  opposed  to  his  first  election 
in  1868,  to  his  second  election  in  1872,  when  the  ex 
ample  of  Washington  was  inapplicable,  when  the 
tradition  of  the  fathers  could  not  be  cited,  when 
the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  did 
not  exist. 

Among  Democrats  the  most  conspicuous  Demo- 

*  From  "  The  North  American  Review,"  April,  1880. 


200  GENERAL   GRANT. 

crat  in  this  opposition  to  General  Grant  was  Judge 
Black,  of  Pennsylvania ;  and,  in  the  March  number 
of  "  The  North  American  Review,"  he  gives  his 
friends  the  benefit  of  his  argument  against  the 
third  election  of  General  Grant,  and  inflicts  upon 
his  enemies  the  full  force  of  his  passions.  He  has 
seen  nothing  good  or  even  hopeful  in  the  events 
of  the  last  twenty  years ;  and  he  has  read  of  noth 
ing  bad  in  the  annals  of  Rome,  where  chiefly  his 
studies  appear  to  have  been,  whether  as  republic  or 
empire,  which  he  does  not  apprehend  for  America 
in  case  of  the  election  of  General  Grant  for  a  third 
term.  His  argument  against  the  election  of  any 
person  to  the  presidency  a  third  time  is  based 
upon  the  example  of  Washington  and  the  declara 
tions  of  Jefferson.  The  authorities  are  good,  and, 
when  there  was  no  trustworthy  history,  either  for 
example  or  warning,  except  that  of  ancient  Rome 
and  the  histories  of  the  mediaeval  and  feudal  states 
of  Europe,  the  argument  itself  was  not  bad. 

In  the  course  of  his  article  Judge  Black  has 
made  many  references  to  ancient  Rome.  His  ex 
cellence  herein  is  admitted.  At  best  I  can  make 
but  one.  Gibbon  says  of  the  various  modes  of 
worship  which  prevailed  in  the  Roman  world  that 
"  all  were  considered  by  the  people  as  equally  true, 
by  the  philosophers  as  equally  false,  and  by  the 
magistrates  as  equally  useful."  There  is  no  vio- 


THIRD    TERM.  2OI 

lence  in  the  assumption  that  Judge  Black  has  been 
so  absorbed  by  the  thought  that  the  example  of 
Washington  and  the  teachings  of  Jefferson  could 
be  made  useful  to  the  Democratic  party  in  this  its 
exigency,  that  he  has  neglected  to  consider  with 
care  the  question  whether,  after  a  century  of  expe 
rience  in  free  popular  government,  it  is  indeed  true 
that  the  example  of  Washington  in  this  respect  is 
the  only  remaining  bulwark  for  the  protection  of 
our  assailed  and  imperiled  liberties.  If  this  be  so, 
then  the  reputation  of  Washington  will  need  a 
more  ardent — perhaps  I  may  not  be  permitted  to 
say  a  more  able — defender  than  even  Judge  Black 
himself. 

Washington  was  President  of  the  Convention 
which  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  That  Constitution  makes  every  male  citi 
zen  who  has  attained  the  age  of  thirty-five  years 
eligible  and  re-eligible,  without  limitation  as  to 
times,  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States.  If  the  peril  to  the  country  from  the  re 
peated  election  of  the  same  person  to  the  presi 
dency  was  believed  by  Washington  and  his  associ 
ates  to  be  such  as  Judge  Black  now  represents  it, 
then  Washington  and  his  associates  are  wholly 
without  excuse  in  their  neglect  of  a  great  public 
duty.  Nor  is  it  an  answer  or  defense  to  say  that 
Washington  intended  to  leave  an  example  to  his 


202  GENERAL   GRANT. 

countrymen  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  would,  as 
a  tradition,  become  as  powerful  for  the  protection 
of  their  rights  and  liberties  as  would  be  a  written 
constitutional  inhibition.  Life  is  uncertain ;  death 
is  certain;  and  in  1787  Washington  could  have  had 
no  assurance  that  he  would  be  permitted  by  Divine 
Providence  to  hold  the  office  of  President  for  eight 
years,  and  at  the  close  to  give  an  example  of  volun 
tary  abstention  from  worldly  honors  which  should 
not  only  receive  the  approval  of  the  living  genera 
tion,  but  also  command  the  respect  and  obedience 
of  his  countrymen  in  all  ages  of  the  republic. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  a  member  of  the  Conven 
tion,  and  it  is  well  known  that  its  proceedings  in 
many  particulars  were  not  approved  by  him.  But 
to  Mr.  Jefferson,  more  than  to  any  one  else,  is  the 
country  indebted  for  the  first  eleven  articles  of 
amendment  to  the  Constitution — articles  designed 
to  render  the  liberties  of  the  people  more  secure 
against  the  encroachments  of  power.  But  these 
amendments  are  silent  in  regard  to  the  presidential 
office.  Provision  is  made,  however,  that  persons 
charged  with  crime  shall  have  a  perpetual  consti 
tutional  right  to  compulsory  process  for  obtaining 
witnesses  in  their  favor ;  that  in  all  suits  at  com 
mon  law,  where  the  value  in  controversy  exceeds 
twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall  be 
preserved ;  and  yet  no  constitutional  safeguard  is 


THIRD    TERM.  203 

erected  against  a  manifest  peril,  a  continuing  men 
ace  to  the  institutions  and  liberties  of  an  entire 
people. 

If  Washington  and  Jefferson  estimated  the  peril 
as  Judge  Black  now  says  the  peril  was  estimated 
by  them,  and  as  in  fact  the  peril  really  is,  who  is 
sufficient  to  offer  a  defense,  an  excuse,  or  even  an 
apology  for  the  Father  of  his  Country  or  the  Apos 
tle  of  Liberty?  The  original  Constitution  was 
wrought  out  in  the  presence  and  under  the  lead  of 
Washington,  and  the  amendments  were  framed  at 
the  dictation  of  Jefferson.  Eight  words  in  the 
Constitution  or  in  an  amendment  would  have  fur 
nished  ample  protection  for  all  time.  The  words 
are  not  there,  and  \vhy  not?  Surely  not  because 
Washington  and  Jefferson  were  not  patriotic  men, 
nor  because  they  were  not  far-seeing  men,  but  be 
cause  upon  reflection  they  thought  it  unwise  to 
place  any  limitation  upon  the  power  of  the  people 
to  elect  their  rulers  at  stated  times  and  in  pre 
scribed  ways.  The  country  is  not  lacking  in  ven 
eration  for  Washington  and  Jefferson.  That  ven 
eration  will  survive  the  criticism  of  Judge  Howe, 
it  will  outlive  the  defense  of  Judge  Black.  And 
may  one  inquire  whether  there  is  anything  in  the 
example  of  Washington  which  warrants  the  opin 
ion  that  this  Government  has  not  constitutional 
power  to  protect  its  own  life ;  or  anything  in  the 


204  GENERAL   GRANT. 

teachings  of  Jefferson  inconsistent  with  the  emancL 
pation  of  the  slaves,  their  elevation  to  citizenship, 
their  equality  under  the  Constitution  of  the  coun 
try  ;  or  if  there  is  anything  in  the  example  or 
teachings  of  Washington  or  Jefferson  which  justi 
fies  Judge  Black  and  the  party  that  he  represents 
in  the  attempt  that  was  made  to  overthrow  the 
Union,  in  the  resistance  to  emancipation,  and  in  the 
continuing  effort  to  subvert  the  Government  by 
the  forcible  suppression  of  the  popular  will?  In 
every  age  there  are  those  who  build  the  tombs  of 
the  prophets  and  garnish  the  sepulchres  of  the 
righteous,  and  yet  deny  justice  to  the  living  gener 
ation  of  men. 

If  Judge  Black's  argument  against  a  third  term 
shall  receive  only  that  degree  of  favor  which  has 
been  accorded  to  his  public  teachings  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  he  may  be  assured  that  the  chief  rea 
son  is  to  be  found  in  the  conduct  of  the  party  with 
which  he  is  identified.  That  conduct  has  awak 
ened  the  most  serious  apprehensions  in  the  public 
mind  touching  the  security  of  property  and  of  per 
sonal  political  rights ;  and  these  apprehensions  not 
only  justify  but  require  the  people  to  place  the 
helm  of  government  in  the  hands  of  the  man  best 
qualified  to  guide  the  ship  of  state  safely  through 
stormy  seas.  In  quiet  times  the  tradition  of  the 
fathers  would  be  respected,  and  this  without  a 


THIRD    TERM. 


205 


careful  examination  of  its  value  or  of  its  applica 
bility  to  modern  affairs.  It  is  to  the  teachings  of 
Judge  Black,  and  the  associates  of  Judge  Black, 
that  the  country  is  indebted  for  the  circumstances 
in  our  public  life  which  compel  us  to  canvass  the 
tradition  upon  its  merits,  to  examine  the  circum 
stances  in  which  it  had  its  origin,  and  to  consider 
and  determine  whether  its  authority  is  such,  or  its 
intrinsic  value  such,  that  in  a  grave  exigency  in 
public  affairs,  and  in  obedience  to  that  tradition 
alone,  the  man  best  qualified  to  protect  personal 
rights  and  to  defend  public  interests  shall  be  ex 
cluded  from  the  public  service.  If  a  strong  man 
is  needed  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  the  ne 
cessity  arises  from  the  circumstance  that  the  spirit 
of  rebellion,  of  resistance  to  the  Constitution,  is 
manifested  by  a  large  class  of  citizens.  Those  citi 
zens,  without  exception,  are  Democrats,  and  they 
receive  aid  and  encouragement  from  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  Republican 
party  to  suppress  that  spirit ;  to  render  it  power 
less,  absolutely,  both  in  personal  and  in  public 
affairs.  And  it  may  happen  that,  in  accomplishing 
this  result,  the  example  of  Washington  and  the 
tradition  of  the  fathers  will  be  disregarded.  I  ad 
mit  the  example,  I  recognize  the  tradition,  and, 
with  these  admissions,  it  is  my  purpose  to  consider 
their  binding  force  upon  the  country,  their  histori- 


206  GENERAL   GRANT. 

cai  origin,  their  intrinsic  value  as  guides  in  public 
affairs. 

There  has  been  a  serious  effort  to  establish  the 
proposition  that  what  is  called  "  the  tradition  of 
the  fathers "  is  as  binding  upon  the  country  as  a 
limitation  upon  the  power  of  the  people  would  be 
if  the  restriction  were  a  part  of  the  Constitution 
itself.  Judge  Black  sustains  the  notion,  and  gives 
to  it  the  benefit  of  his  rhetoric  and  his  emphasis. 
Statement  alone  is  sufficient  upon  this  point.  Argu 
ment  is  unnecessary.  The  opinions  of  Washington 
and  Jefferson  are  entitled  to  the  highest  considera 
tion  as  opinions — nothing  more.  We  refuse  to  al 
low  the  hands  of  dead  men  to  control  the  soil  of 
the  country ;  and  shall  we  without  inquiry,  with 
out  a  judgment  of  our  own,  permit  the  opinions  of 
dead  men  to  control  the  thought  and  the  policy  of 
the  country?  We  have  changed,  indeed  in  some 
particulars  we  have  annihilated,  the  Constitution 
of  Washington,  the  Constitution  of  the  fathers, 
and  therefor  take  equal  honor  for  ourselves  and 
for  them,  in  the  belief  that  if  they  were  among  us 
they  would  accept  and  ratify  with  acclaim  the 
changes  that  have  been  made. 

And  is  the  unwritten  law  more  sacred?  May 
the  people  annul  the  written  law  of  the  fathers, 
and  still  be  bound  perpetually  by  their  traditions? 
It  would  not  be  strange  if  in  these  later  days,  and 


THIRD    TERM.  2O/ 

for  a  particular  reason,  the  importance  of  Washing 
ton's  example  had  been  unduly  magnified.  When 
he  prepared  his  Farewell  Address  to  his  country 
men,  the  most  important  document  that  ever  came 
from  his  pen,  he  omitted  all  reference  to  his  own 
example  in  retiring  from  the  presidential  office 
at  the  end  of  the  second  term,  as  imposing  upon 
all  his  successors  a  corresponding  practice.  In 
November,  1806,  the  Legislature  of  Vermont  nomi 
nated  Mr.  Jefferson  for  a  third  election  to  the 
presidency.  If  he  had  then  realized  the  dangers 
of  such  a  proceeding  as  they  are  now  set  forth  by 
Judge  Black,  would  he  have  waited  till  December, 
1807,  before  he  announced  his  purpose  not  to  be  a 
candidate  for  re-election? 

It  is  a  satisfaction  that,  even  at  this  somewhat 
advanced  stage  of  the  discussion,  I  am  in  accord 
with  Judge  Black  upon  one  point.  He  says,  "  The 
mere  authority  of  names,  however  great,  ought  not 
to  command  our  assent."  This  is  a  sound  proposi 
tion  in  ethics,  in  politics,  and  in  law.  All  through 
these  weary  pages  I  am  endeavoring  to  demon 
strate  its  wisdom  in  matters  of  politics,  and  I  re 
lieve  the  tediousness  of  the  hour  by  a  single  illus 
tration  designed  to  show  its  importance  in  matters 
of  law. 

Judge  Black,  speaking  of  real  estate,  and  not  of 
politics,  says,  "  A  lease  for  years,  renewable  and 


2o8  GENERAL  GRANT. 

always  renewed,  gives  the  tenant  an  estate  without 
end,  and  makes  him  lord  of  the  fee."  This  sen 
tence  is  admirably  turned,  and  its  rhetoric  is  above 
criticism  or  complaint ;  but  as  a  legal  proposition 
it  is  only  true  when  some  words,  possibly  implied 
by  the  writer,  are  clearly  expressed.  It  should 
be  written,  "  A  lease  for  years,  renewable  at  the 
will  of  the  tenant,  and  always  renewed,  gives  the 
tenant  an  estate  without  end,  and  makes  him  lord 
of  the  fee";  and,  thus  written,  its  inapplicability 
to  the  question  under  discussion  is  fully  exposed. 
The  tenure  of  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States  is  not  renewable  at  the  will  of  the  tenant, 
and  therefore  the  tenant  can  never  become  lord  of 
the  fee.  It  is  only  renewable  at  the  will  of  the 
lord  of  the  fee — the  people ;  and,  being  so  renew 
able  only,  the  fee  must  ever  remain  in  the  lord, 
however  often  the  lease  may  be  renewed. 

But  it  is  not  open  to  doubt  that  there  has  been 
a  general  disinclination  in  the  American  public 
mind  to  the  election  of  the  same  person  to  the 
presidency  a  third  time ;  and  there  is  as  little 
doubt  that  that  disinclination  is  less  general  and 
less  vigorous  than  it  was  three  years  ago.  It  is, 
however,  as  old  as  the  Government.  It  had  its 
roots  in  the  experience  of  the  colonists.  In  Europe 
hereditary  power  had  fostered  standing  armies, 
and  standing  armies  had  maintained  hereditary 


THIRD    TERM. 


209 


power.  Both  were  the  enemies  of  personal  liberty 
and  popular  rights.  It  was  the  purpose  of  the 
founders  of  our  Government  to  render  standing 
armies  unnecessary,  and  the  possession  of  heredi 
tary  power  impossible.  If  the  experience  of  a 
century  is  an  adequate  test,  the  end  they  sought 
has  been  attained.  They  had  observed,  also,  that 
the  possession  of  power,  by  virtue  of  office,  for  un 
limited  periods  of  time,  tended  to  the  establish 
ment  of  dynastic  systems  and  to  their  recognition 
by  the  people.  Hence  provision  was  made  in  all 
our  Constitutions,  State  and  national,  for  frequent 
elections  in  the  legislative  and  executive  depart 
ments  of  Government.  But  these  apprehensions, 
whether  wise  or  not,  did  not  lead  the  founders  of 
the  republic  to  the  adoption  of  a  system  which 
limited  the  powers  of  the  people  or  cast  a  doubt 
upon  their  capacity  for  self-government. 

The  term  of  the  presidential  office  was  limited 
to  four  years,  but  the  constitutional  ability  of  the 
people  to  continue  one  person  in  the  office  through 
many  terms  was  admitted  without  limit.  If  the 
men  who  framed  the  Constitution  apprehended 
evils  from  a  third  or  even  a  second  election  of  the 
same  person  to  the  presidency,  they  accepted  those 
possible  evils  in  preference  to  a  limitation  of  the 
power  of  the  people  in  the  choice  of  their  rulers. 
The  tenure  of  office  is  fixed,  but  the  Constitution 


210  GENERAL   GRANT. 

is  silent  upon  the  question  whether  it  is  wise  or 
unwise  to  continue  the  same  person  in  office  for 
more  than  one  term. 

Washington  avoided  a  third  term,  and  his  ex 
ample  has  had  large  influence  in  leading  the  coun 
try  to  accept  the  opinion  that  a  contrary  policy  is 
fraught  with  danger  to  the  public  liberties.  Wash 
ington's  motives  and  reasons  are  not  clear.  He 
was,  however,  no  longer  young.  His  best  years 
had  been  spent  in  the  public  service,  and  he  natu 
rally  yearned  for  the  peace  and  quiet  of  private 
life.  Nor  can  there  be  a  doubt  that,  superadded  to 
these  personal  considerations,  was  the  thought  that 
his  example  might  serve  as  a  restraint  in  case  of 
the  appearance  of  a  popular  leader  who  should 
seek  to  subvert  the  Government  through  succes 
sive  elections  to  the  presidency. 

The  s}rstem  of  government  which  Washington 
and  his  associates  had  inaugurated  was  a  novel 
system.  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  peo 
ple,  and  for  the  people  was  an  experiment.  No 
one  could  then  foresay  what  their  capacity  would 
prove  to  be  in  emergencies,  or  even  in  quiet  times. 
The  power  of  rulers  in  dynastic  countries  was 
much  more  absolute  a  century  ago  than  it  now  is, 
and  the  extent  of  that  power  measured  the  danger 
to  which,  in  the  estimation  of  our  fathers,  free  peo 
ples  were  exposed. 


THIRD    TERM.  211 

Washington's  example  was  set  off  and  made 
impressive  by  the  phenomenon  of  a  Corsican  cor 
poral  passing  at  a  bound,  as  it  were,  from  the  ruins 
of  a  republic  to  the  throne  of  an  empire,  displacing 
kings  and  rulers,  and  founding  a  family  dynasty 
that  has  lasted  nearly  a  century,  either  in  power 
or  contending  for  power. 

The  experience  of  Europe  gave  rise  to  the 
opinion  in  America  that  it  is  dangerous  to  permit 
the  same  person  to  continue  in  the  chief  executive 
office  for  a  long  period  of  time  ;  but  the  tradition 
ary  idea  that  the  danger-line  in  the  presidential 
office  is  the  line  between  the  second  and  third 
terms,  is  due  to  the  influence  of  Washington's 
example. 

Aside  from  governments  in  which  office  is  con 
ferred  by  popular  suffrage  constitutionally  enjoyed 
and  exercised,  there  are  three  methods  of  gaining 
and  holding  power: 

i.  Physical  force.  2.  The  claim  of  a  right  to 
rule,  sometimes  called  the  divine  right  to  rule, 
which  is  the  result  of  the  enjoyment  of  power  in 
a  family  for  a  long  period  of  time.  3.  Recognized 
mental  and  moral  supremacy. 

As  to  the  first  mode — the  establishment  of  a 
personal  or  family  government  in  the  United  States 
by  physical  force — it  is  to  be  said  that  the  success 
of  such  an  undertaking,  or  even  its  attempt,  is  too 


212  GENERAL   GRANT. 

remote  in  the  logic  of  events,  and  too  improbable 
when  judged  by  experience  or  tested  by  reason, 
to  warrant  argument  or  to  command  attention. 
The  destruction  of  a  government  is  always  a  pos 
sible  fact,  and  no  one  can  predict  the  consequences ; 
but,  if  its  overthrow  is  by  force,  the  aggressive 
actors  are  parties  out  of  power,  and  its  defense, 
whether  vigorous  or  weak,  is  by  those  in  power. 

Moreover,  it  is  to  be  said  that  the  opportunity 
for  a  president  to  seize  the  Government  by  force 
is  as  great  in  the  first  or  second  term  as  it  can  be 
in  the  third ;  and  the  probability  that  a  man  who 
had  not  been  tempted,  or  who  had  not  yielded,  in 
the  first  and  second  terms  would  prove  faithless 
in  the  third,  is  a  view  of  human  nature  contrary  to 
all  human  experience.  And  there  is  less  prob 
ability  that  the  possession  of  the  presidency  for 
eight,  or  twelve,  or  twenty  years  would  induce 
even  one  person  in  the  United  States  to  admit  a 
divine  right  to  rule  either  in  the  occupant  of  the 
office  or  his  family. 

Lastly,  if  mental  or  moral  supremacy  were  rec 
ognized,  that  recognition  would  find  expression  in 
the  United  States  by  an  election  through  constitu 
tional  means. 

There  are  two  theories  of  political  action,  the 
ories  inconsistent  with  each  other,  both  unsound 
and  both  maintained  and  propagated  by  the  same 


THIRD    TERM. 


213 


body  of  theorists  in  matters  of  government.  One 
theory  is  that  men  in  subordinate  places  should  be 
continued  in  those  places  as  long  as  they  are  faith 
ful  and  competent,  and  this  without  regard  to 
their  political  opinions  or  to  the  qualifications  of 
contestants ;  and  the  other  theory  is  that  in  the 
chief  place  of  government,  where  experience,  ca 
pacity,  and  integrity  are  of  more  consequence  than 
in  any  subordinate  place,  the  occupant  should  be 
excluded  after  four  or  certainly  after  eight  years' 
experience,  however  competent,  wise,  and  just  he 
may  have  proved  himself  to  be.  If  a  public  policy 
were  to  be  based  upon  reason,  the  stronger  argu 
ments  would  be  found  in  favor  of  continuing  the 
President  in  office  as  long  as  his  services  were  ac- 

o 

ceptable  to  the  people. 

In  truth,  however,  there  is  no  field  for  argu 
ment.  No  man  has  a  right  to  an  office,  but  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  select  men  for  place  who 
in  their  opinion  are  best  qualified  to  do  the  work 
they  wish  to  have  done. 

Where,  by  the  Constitution,  appointments  are 
vested  in  the  President,  in  the  courts,  or  in  the 
heads  of  departments,  the  same  right  rests  in  those 
constitutional  agents  of  the  people  ;  and  it  becomes 
their  duty  to  continue  men  in  office  when  the  pub 
lic  interests  will  be  best  promoted  by  so  doing,  and 
to  remove  men  from  office  when  their  places  can 


214  GENERAL   GRANT. 

be  supplied  by  persons  more  capable  of  rendering 
efficient  service.  There  can  be  no  title  to  office, 
and  there  ought  to  be  no  rule  of  absolute  exclusion 
from  office. 

In  public  affairs,  as  in  private  life,  it  is  true  usu 
ally  that  our  apprehensions  are  not  awakened  by 
the  dangers  that  actually  menace  us.  Executive 
power  and  the  influence  of  office-holders  are  the 
dangers  apprehended  that  now  most  excite  the 
public  mind.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say 
that  there  are  less  than  eighty  thousand  office-hold 
ers  under  the  national  Government,  and  that  of 
these  not  twenty  thousand  are  appointed  by  the 
President  directly,  the  rest  receiving  their  commis 
sions  from  heads  of  department  and  the  courts. 
This  army  of  office-holders  numbers  one  to  about 
six  hundred  inhabitants,  and  there  are  probably 
not  another  eighty  thousand  intelligent  men  in  the 
country  whose  political  influence  is  less  than  theirs. 
If  they  support  an  Administration,  they  are  char 
acterized  as  sycophants ;  if  they  put  themselves  in 
opposition  to  it,  they  are  branded  as  ingrates ;  and 
if  they  are  silent,  they  are  treated  as  cowards. 
There  is  indeed  no  place  in  politics  for  an  office 
holder  by  executive  appointment  where  he  can 
exert  the  influence  that  is  accorded  to  an  inde 
pendent,  energetic  private  citizen.  Office-holders 
should  be  free  to  express  their  opinions  ;  above  all, 


THIRD    TERM.  21$ 

they  should  be  free  from  any  constraint  proceeding 
from  the  appointing  power  ;  but  in  no  aspect  of  af 
fairs  are  they  a  dangerous  class  in  our  politics. 
And  it  is  a  kindred  weakness  to  suppose  that  the  lib 
erties  of  the  country  are  in  danger  from  executive 
powers.  Executive  authority  is  diminishing  in 
China,  Japan,  Russia,  Germany,  and  England,  and 
in  all  those  countries  the  jurisdiction  of  the  legisla 
tive  branches  of  government  is  broader,  firmer, 
and  more  respected  than  ever  before.  With  us 
power  tends  toward  Congress,  and  in  Congress  to 
the  House  of  Representatives.  In  these  four  years 
we  have  seen  the  just  and  proper  authority  of  the 
President  restrained  and  paralyzed  by  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  during  the  Administration 
of  Andrew  Johnson  his  dispositions  and  purposes 
were  checked  and  thwarted  by  the  same  branch  of 
the  Government. 

The  liberties  of  the  country  can  not  be  subverted 
as  long  as  that  branch  of  the  Government  which 
can  open  and  close  the  Treasury  of  the  nation  at  its 
sovereign  will  is  true  to  its  duty  ;  and  that  branch 
will  remain  true  to  its  duty  while  the  constituency 
is  both  intelligent  and  honest.  1  venture  to  assert 
that  there  is  no  present  danger  from  the  compara 
tively  small  body  of  office-holders,  none  from  presi 
dential  patronage,  and  nothing  of  imminent  peril, 
indeed,  from  the  numerous  evils  marshaled  under 


216  GENERAL   GRANT. 

the  term  maladministration,  from  which  no  country 
is  ever  entirely  free. 

With  these  observations  upon  questions  of 
minor  importance,  I  turn  to  the  one  topic  of  su 
preme  interest  and  of  real  peril — the  purpose  of 
the  old  slaveholcling  class  to  subvert  the  Govern 
ment  by  securing  the  rule  of  a  minority,  first  in 
the  South,  and  then  consequently  in  all  the  affairs 
of  the  republic ;  and  I  shall  then  proceed  to 
show  how  this  purpose  may  be  most  successfully 
thwarted  by  the  election  of  General  Grant. 

We  all  know  that  this  undertaking  in  the  end 
must  prove  a  failure  ;  but  the  speedy  overthrow  of 
the  scheme,  and  the  speedy  dissipation  of  the  idea 
on  which  the  scheme  rests,  are  essential  to  the  rep 
utation  and  welfare  of  the  country.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  prosecution  of  the  scheme  is  an  obstacle 
to  business,  a  constant  peril  to  the  public  peace,  a 
direct  assault  upon  the  interests  of  labor  in  every 
section,  and  a  menace  to  free  government  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  It  is  a  delusion,  a  criminal  de 
lusion,  to  accept  the  notion  that  there  can  be  un 
broken  peace  and  continuing  prosperity  while  any 
number  of  citizens  are,  as  a  public  policy  of  com 
munities  and  States,  deprived  of  their  equal  rights. 

And  it  is  a  delusion  not  less  criminal  and  even 
more  dangerous  to  accept  the  suggestion  that  the 
old  free  States,  containing  a  majority  of  the  people 


THIRD    TERM.  217 

of  the  country,  will  peacefully,  and  through  a 
series  of  years,  submit  to  the  rule  of  men  in  the 
executive  and  legislative  branches  of  the  Govern 
ment,  who  take  office  and  wield  power  through 
proceedings  that  are  systematically  tainted  with 
fraud  or  crimsoned  with  innocent  blood. 

It  is  clearly  established  beyond  the  demands  of 
legal  or  moral  proof  that  there  are  persons  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  who  have  no  better 
right  in  equity  to  the  places  they  occupy  than  they 
have  to  seats  in  the  Commons  of  Great  Britain. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  these  persons  constitute  the  majority  in  each 
branch.  Thus  has  our  former  indifference  to  the 
fortunes  of  our  brethren  in  the  South  been  visited 
by  a  direct  penalty  upon  ourselves. 

I  proceed  now  to  state  our  demand  of  the 
South,  and  in  that  statement  I  disclose  also  the  evil 
of  which  we  complain. 

Our  demand,  speaking  generally,  is,  that  in  all 
the  States  of  the  Union  ever)7  person  who  has  a 
right  to  vote  shall  be  permitted  to  vote  ;  that  his 
vote  shall  be  counted  ;  that  it  shall  be  honestly  val 
ued  ;  and  that  the  governments  created  by  the  ma 
jorities  shall  be  set  up  and  recognized.  The  con 
test  is  upon  this  proposition,  and  upon  this  propo 
sition  the  contest  will  be  wraged  until  it  is  accepted, 
practically,  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  Not  from 


2l8  GENERAL   GRANT. 

hostility  to  the  South  will  this  contest  be  carried 
on  ;  but  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  our  fellow-citi 
zens  there  and  in  defense  of  our  rights  as  citizens 
of  the  republic  will  the  contest  be  prosecuted  to 
the  end,  whether  near  or  remote.  Under  the  sys 
tem  of  suppression  and  wrong  now  existing,  the 
vote  of  a  white  citizen  in  South  Carolina  or  Mis 
sissippi  is,  as  a  fact  in  government,  equal  to  the 
votes  of  three  citizens  in  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  or  Illinois.  Such  inequality  can  not  long 
continue,  but,  if  its  long  continuance  were  possible, 
it  would  work  the  destruction  of  the  Government 
itself.  The  issue,  then,  is  a  vital  one  ;  and,  if  the 
ultimate  result  be  not  uncertain,  then  the  more  im 
portant  it  is  to  bring  the  contest  to  a  close  speedily. 
Delay  gives  birth  to  hopes  that  must  perish,  embit 
ters  the  contestants,  and  checks  or  paralyzes  pri 
vate  and  public  prosperity. 

There  is  not  a  citizen  of  the  North  who  is  free 
from  responsibility  or  beyond  the  reach  of  this  evil. 
It  touches  with  its  malignant  hand  the  humblest 
laborer  and  the  wealthiest  capitalist.  The  laborer 
of  the  South  is  driven  in  poverty  from  his  home, 
and  the  laborer  of  the  North  is  cursed  with  an  un 
natural  and  unhealthy  competition.  Capital  loaned 
or  used  in  the  South  is  without  security.  It  finds 
no  protection  either  in  local  justice  or  in  public 
faith.  By  the  force  of  events  the  laboring  popula- 


THIRD   TERM.  219 

tion  of  the  South  is  driven  into  the  North,  and  by 
the  force  of  the  same  events  the  South  is  closed  to 
the  labor  and  capital  of  the  world.  In  many  as 
pects  the  South  is  the  chief  sufferer.  Even  now  it 
approaches  the  admission  that  the  abolition  of 
slavery  was  a  good,  and  in  twenty  years  more  it 
will  accept  the  truth  that  there  was  no  way  to 
prosperity  except  through  justice  to  the  black 
man. 

As  States  multiply,  as  population  increases,  as 
representative  constituencies  are  enlarged,  the 
power  of  the  individual  voter  and  of  the  State 
diminishes.  When  the  population  of  the  Union 
was  but  three  million  and  the  States  were  but 
thirteen,  the  voice  of  Massachusetts  in  the  Senate 
was  as  two  to  twenty-six.  In  less  than  a  hundred 
years,  two  thirds  of  her  power,  speaking  relatively 
and  numerically,  have  disappeared.  Her  vote  in 
the  Senate  is  now  only  two  in  seventy-six,  or  one  in 
thirty-eight. 

During  the  same  period,  however,  the  means  of 
communication  and  of  influence  have  increased 
even  more  rapidly  than  has  been  the  increase  of 
population.  Maine  and  California  are  nearer  to 
each  other  than  were  New  Hampshire  and  Penn 
sylvania  a  hundred  years  ago ;  and  there  are  now 
no  States  so  distant  from  the  capital  of  the  country 
as  were  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  when  the 
15 


220  GENERAL   GRANT. 

Union  was  formed.  The  articles  of  "  The  Feder 
alist  "  were  delayed  through  successive  weeks  be 
fore  they  reached  impatient  readers  in  distant  parts 
of  the  country,  while  now  the  news  of  the  morning, 
the  market,  the  courts,  the  Congress,  is  furnished 
with  equal  accuracy  and  fullness  in  Washington,  in 
Maine,  in  Texas,  in  California,  and  in  Oregon.  If 
the  power  of  the  individual  ballot  is  less  than  it 
once  was,  the  idea  behind  the  ballot  has  gained  a 
hundred-fold  in  opportunity  for  development  and 
influence. 

We  are  now,  therefore,  more  concerned  about 
the  idea  which  directs  the  ballot  than  we  are  about 
the  name,  residence,  or  race  of  the  voter.  All 
opinions  and  all  politics  have  become  local,  and  all 
opinions  and  all  politics  have  become  national. 
Political  outrages  in  Maine,  Louisiana,  and  South 
Carolina  disturb  and  endanger  the  political  rights 
of  men  in  every  voting  precinct  and  school  dis 
trict  of  the  Union.  The  sovereignty  of  the  States 
is  not  disputed  seriously  ;  the  supremacy,  the  neces 
sary,  the  inevitable,  the  constitutional  supremacy 
of  the  nation  is  everywhere  more  and  more  recog 
nized  ;  but  there  are  communities  which  deny  to 
the  General  Government  the  power  to  protect  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  in  his  political  rights 
against  domestic  violence,  and  yet  have  no  scruples 
about  invoking  the  aid  of  the  Union  against  yellow 


THIRD    TERM.  221 

fever  imported  from  Havana,  or  pleuro-pneumonia 
threatened  from  Holland  or  Liverpool. 

We  are  engaged  in  warm  debate  over  an  an 
cient  tradition,  whose  origin  is  uncertain  and 
whose  value  is  doubtful ;  we  vex  the  public  ear 
with  discussions  touching  appointments  to  office, 
the  dangers  of  executive  patronage,  the  power  of 
office-holders,  the  duties  on  quinine  and  steel ;  and 
yield  a  quiet  submission  to  the  rule  of  a  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  whose  majorities  were 
secured  by  the  grossest  usurpations,  made  possible 
only  by  the  perpetration  of  the  bloodiest  of  crimes. 

In  fine,  public  attention  and  the  powers  of  Gov 
ernment  are  directed  to  topics  of  minor  and  tem 
porary  importance,  while  the  real  peril  to  which 
the  country  is  exposed  is  either  denied,  or  its  con 
sideration  is  avoided,  or  its  importance  is  dwarfed. 

If  any  words  of  mine  can  have  value  in  the  con 
test  now  opening,  those  words  must  relate  to  the 
issue  I  thus  foreshadow. 

The  questions  which  I  now  treat  as  relatively 
unimportant  would  be  worthy  of  earnest  public 
consideration  in  ordinary  times ;  but  the  grave 
question — the  gravest  of  all  questions — now  is, 
Shall  this  Government  be  destroyed  or  subverted  perma 
nently  by  the  usurpations  of  a  minority  f 

It  may  be  unpleasant  to  revive  recollections  of 
the  war,  but  the  war  itself  is  intimately  connected 


222  GENERAL   GRANT. 

with  recent  events  which  have  all  the  ear-marks  of 
a  powerful  and  continuing  conspiracy.  By  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  or  as  resulting  from  its 
successful  issue,  the  Union  was  saved,  slavery  was 
destroyed,  the  blacks  were  enfranchised,  the  repre 
sentative  power  of  the  old  slave  States  was  in 
creased,  and  all  by  the  efforts  and  concessions  of  the 
Republican  party.  More  than  this :  By  the  magna 
nimity  of  the  same  party  the  authors  and  leaders  of 
the  rebellion  were  not  only  relieved  from  the  pun 
ishment,  and  the  peril  of  punishment,  due  to  their 
crimes,  but  they  were  restored  to  their  temporal  pos 
sessions,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  to  all  their  polit 
ical  rights.  How  has  this  magnanimity  been  re 
paid  ?  By  the  seizure  of  State  after  State  through 
bloody  scenes  of  crime  and  by  criminal  processes 
of  fraud.  Arkansas,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Missis 
sippi,  and  South  Carolina  have  been  subjugated  to 
the  Democratic  party,  by  the  perpetration  of  the 
basest  of  crimes.  Power  thus  acquired  in  those 
States  is  perpetuated  in  the  hands  of  an  armed 
minority  by  the  continual  practice  of  frauds  which 
the  majority,  intimidated  by  the  recollection  of  the 
bloody  past,  dare  not  either  resist  or  expose.  The 
conspirators,  encouraged  by  their  successes  in  the 
-old  slave  States,  and  warned  by  the  accumulating 
evidences  of  an  adverse  public  sentiment  in  the 
North,  sought,  in  their  desperation,  to  render  their 


THIRD    TERM.  223 

supremacy  absolute  by  the  fraudulent  seizure  of 
the  always  free  and  intelligent  State  of  Maine. 
There  they  have  met  their  first  defeat,  but  the  pro 
cesses  employed  connect  the  conspiracy  in  Maine 
and  the  conspiracy  of  the  South  with  as  much  cer 
tainty  as  we  connect  the  drifting  icebergs  of  the 
Atlantic  with  the  frozen  seas  of  the  North. 

The  patriotic  men  of  the  country  are  thus 
brought  face  to  face  with  a  great  conspiracy  which 
embraces  the  entire  republic  within  the  theatre  of 
its  operations.  The  central  force  of  that  conspiracy 
is  the  old  slave  power.  Its  purpose  is  to  subju 
gate  the  Government  to  the  ideas  and  policy  of 
the  slaveholcling  class.  The  chief  means  by  which 
this  policy  can  be  made  successful  is  the  entire 
suppression  of  the  negro  vote  in  the  fifteen  old 
slave  States.  For  the  time  this  has  been  accom 
plished,  and  the  result  is  seen  in  a  Democratic  Sen 
ate  and  a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives. 
Shall  the  presidency  also  be  filled  by  a  Democrat, 
and  by  the  same  means  ? 

This  conspiracy  is  within  the  Democratic  party, 
and  the  Democratic  party  is  its  ally.  It  is,  there 
fore,  quite  unimportant  to  inquire  whether  the  con 
spiracy  embrace  the  entire  party  or  not ;  it  is 
enough  that  the  party  is  subservient  to  the  con 
spiracy.  The  conspiracy  triumphs  when  the  party 
succeeds.  The  volumes  of  testimony  taken  in 


224  GENERAL   GRANT. 

Louisiana,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  South  Carolina  prove  the  existence 
of  the  conspiracy.  They  prove,  also,  that  its 
agents  were  sometimes  White-Leaguers,  sometimes 
Ku-klux,  and  sometimes  Regulators,  but  that  their 
acts  and  policy  were  always  the  same.  As  the  con 
spiracy  operates  within  and  gives  direction  to  the 
Democratic  party,  it  is  manifest  that  the  Republi 
can  party  is  the  only  political  organization  which 
has  either  the  disposition  or  the  ability  to  change 
the  course  of  events.  And  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  Republican  party  enters  the  contest  defy 
ing  a  conspiracy  which  is  already  triumphant  in 
the  South.  Of  the  fifteen  old  slave  States  it  has 
usurped  power  in  six,  and  suppressed  freedom  of 
political  action  in  all  the  rest.  A  free  vote  and  an 
honest  count  would  insure  the  election  of  a  Repub 
lican  President  and  majorities  in  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives.  This  vote  can  not  be 
had,  and  the  Republican  party  of  the  North  is 
thereby  deprived  of  the  aid  of  its  natural  and  trust 
worthy  allies  in  the  South.  The  conspiracy  has 
made  the  South  a  unit,  and  the  sole  reliance  of  the 
Republican  party  is  upon  the  North.  In  this  exi 
gency  that  party  must  nominate  a  candidate  who 
can  command  an  election,  and  who,  when  elected, 
will  possess  ability  and  courage  to  meet  and  master 
the  difficulties  that  are  sure  to  confront  him.  As  it 


THIRD    TERM. 


22$ 


was  certain  in  1860  that  the  controlling  force  in  the 
Democratic  party  contemplated  rebellion,  so  now  in 
1880,  it  is  as  certain  that  the  controlling  force  in  the 
Democratic  party  contemplates  the  inauguration  of 
the  candidate  of  that  party,  whether  he  is  or  is  not 
duly  elected.  The  gravity  of  this  contest  can  not 
be  exaggerated.  We  know  beforehand  that  the 
election  of  the  Democratic  candidate  by  honest 
means  is  an  impossibility  ;  and  yet  the  declaration 
of  his  election  by  the  House  and  the  Senate  can  be 
averted  only  by  a  victory  on  the  part  of  the  Re 
publicans  so  decisive  as  to  leave  no  ground  for 
criticism  or  claim.  Such  claim  is  least  likely  to  be 
made  when  the  Republican  party  is  under  the  lead 
of  General  Grant.  General  Grant  is  a  man  of 
peace  ;  but  his  capacity  and  firmness  in  defense  of 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  his  country  have  been  so 
often  tested  in  great  exigencies,  that  no  further 
evidence  is  required  either  by  friends  or  enemies. 

If  it  be  conceded  that  the  States  of  the  South, 
where  the  conspirators  have  usurped  the  govern 
ments  and  suppressed  the  ballot,  are  to  be  counted 
for  the  Democratic  candidate,  then  the  entire  bur 
den  of  the  contest  is  thrown  upon  the  State  of 
New  York.  Without  New  York  the  Republican 
party  can  not  succeed  ;  with  New  York  the  Re 
publican  party  is  sure  of  success. 

The  State  of  New  York,  in  its  position,  in  its 


226  GENERAL   GRANT. 

population,  in  its  intelligence,  in  its  industries,  in  its 
wealth,  is  the  representative  American  State.  The 
Republicans  of  that  State,  appreciating  the  solem 
nity  of  the  crisis  and  the  importance  of  their  posi 
tion,  have  declared  their  purpose  to  support  Gen 
eral  Grant  for  the  presidency. 

This  purpose  has  not  been  formed  hastily,  nor 
has  the  expression  of  it  been  secured  by  extraordi 
nary  means.  Something  may  be  due  to  leadership, 
but  men  in  masses  do  not  change  their  opinions  at 
the  dictation  of  leaders.  I  place  Mr.  Conkling 
among  the  first  of  American  statesmen,  but  I 
should  do  great  injustice  to  his  constituents  if  I  as 
serted  or  admitted  that  they  advocate  or  accept 
the  nomination  of  General  Grant  under  the  influ 
ence  of  his  lead.  Indeed,  not  only  in  New  York, 
but  throughout  the  entire  North,  the  voters,  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  party,  as  they  are  often  desig 
nated,  are  more  uniformly  in  favor  of  General 
Grant  than  are  the  leaders. 

They  feel,  they  know,  indeed,  that  every  im 
portant  public  interest  will  be  safe  in  his  hands.  If 
the  industry  of  the  country  can  be  promoted,  he  is 
its  friend.  If  the  public  credit  is  assailed,  he  will 
stand  in  its  defense.  If  a  dishonest  financial  policy 
is  proposed,  he  will  not  hesitate  to  resist  it.  If  the 
lawful  authority  of  the  national  Government  is  dis 
puted,  he  will  marshal  and  use  all  the  resources  of 


THIRD    TERM.  227 

that  Government  for  the  maintenance  of  that  au 
thority.  And  if  the  constitutional  rights  of  citi 
zens  are  invaded,  he  will  employ  every  constitu 
tional  power  for  their  protection.  No  doubt  other 
persons  proposed  as  candidates  might  act  in  these 
matters  precisely  as  General  Grant  would  act,  but 
there  is  no  one  of  them  all  who  can  command  as 
great  a  following.  Beyond  all  others,  he  repre 
sents  the  military  spirit  and  the  patriotic  sentiment 
of  the  country.  Almost  to  the  exclusion  of  every 
other,  his  name  is  known  and  revered  by  the  col 
ored  men  of  the  South.  It  may  not  be  possible  to 
redeem  a  single  State  from  the  domination  of  mili 
tary  rule,  but  something  will  be  gained  if  the  vic 
tims  of  the  usurpation  are  led  to  make  one  serious 
effort  more  in  defense  of  their  rights.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  violators  of  law  in  the  South  fear 
General  Grant  more  than  they  fear  any  one  else. 
To  them  he  is  the  representative  of  that  power  by 
which  the  rebellion  was  overthrown,  the  Union  re 
established,  and  slavery  abolished.  His  mastery 
over  great  difficulties  in  the  past  has  taught  them 
the  important  lesson  that  he  will  confront  with  con 
fidence  such  difficulties  as  may  arise  in  the  future. 
To  the  friends  of  law  and  order  the  nomination 
of  General  Grant  is  the  best  security  that  can  now 
be  had  for  peace  and  quiet ;  to  the  enemies  of  law 
and  order  his  nomination  means  the  exercise  of 


228  GENERAL   GRANT. 

power  and  the  administration  of  justice.  Of  this 
they  may  be  assured. 

Most  men  who  have  been  advanced  to  places  of 
honor  and  trust  have  been  charged  with  ambition. 
General  Grant  has  not  escaped  the  charge.  The 
ambition  to  acquire  the  faculty  of  honorably  serv 
ing  the  public  is  a  virtue  ;  the  ambition  to  rise  to 
power  by  the  overthrow  of  the  public  liberties  is 
a  crime.  General  Grant  may  fairly  claim  the  vir 
tue,  and  the  suggestion  that  the  crime  can  be  laid 
at  his  door  is  but  the  grossest  calumny.  In  a  pub 
lic  experience  of  nearly  forty  years  I  have  known 
something  of  public  men,  and  among  them  all  I 
can  not  recall  one  who  gave  more  careful  attention 
to  every  subject  within  the  sphere  of  his  duty. 

It  may  not  be  possible  for  any  man  to  give 
such  assurances  of  fidelity  to  his  country  as  to  dis 
arm  criticism  and  suppress  the  spirit  of  malignity. 
General  Grant  has  done  all  that  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  do,  and  no  one  has  done  more.  He  entered 
the  service  early  in  the  war,  and  without  regard  to 
rank  or  position.  He  was  never  advanced  upon 
his  own  solicitation.  He  gave  everything  he  had, 
including  the  hazard  of  his  life,  to  the  service  of 
his  country.  He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  our 
armies  by  President  Lincoln,  and  at  the  head  of 
our  armies  he  brought  the  war  to  a  conclusion. 
When  the  hour  of  victory  came  he  was  the  trusted 


THIRD    TERM,  229 

leader  of  a  million  enthusiastic,  trained,  veteran 
warriors,  and  first  of  all  he  suggested  and  earnest 
ly  urged  the  disbandment  of  this  immense  force, 
and  their  speedy  return  to  the  arts  and  pursuits  of 
peace.  Now,  in  private  life,  crowned  with  every 
honor  which  his  own  or  other  lands  can  confer,  he 
neither  seeks  nor  shuns  further  public  service.  In 
the  contest  going  on  he  takes  no  part.  If  by  the 
unsolicited  votes  of  his  countrymen  he  is  again 
called  to  the  presidency,  there  ought  not  to  be 
even  one  citizen  base  enough  to  suggest  that  he  is 
animated  by  any  purpose  inconsistent  with  the 
constitutional  requirements  of  the  office. 

This  article  is  already  burdened  with  the  per 
sonality  of  the  writer,  but,  as  the  evil  can  not  now 
be  remedied,  I  venture  to  increase  it. 

My  relations  to  General  Grant  are  those  of  sin 
cere  friendship ;  but,  aside  from  that  friendship,  I 
recognize  no  personal  obligation  binding  me  to 
him.  When  he  tendered  me  a  place  in  his  Cabi 
net,  I  declined  it  definitively  ;  and  it  was  only  when, 
in  peculiar  circumstances,  a  further  refusal  seemed 
wholly  inconsistent  with  my  duty  as  a  citizen  and 
as  a  supporter  of  the  Administration,  that  I  ac 
cepted  office.  My  position  was  an  independent 
one,  and  I  can  now  pass  judgment  upon  General 
Grant  with  entire  freedom.  Pending  the  election 
in  November  last,  I  spoke  at  Bunker  Hill ;  and 


230  GENERAL   GRANT. 

what  I  then  said  concerning  General  Grant  I  now 
repeat : 

"  For  the  first  time  since  General  Grant  left  the 
office  of  President,  I  speak  his  name  in  public,  and 
I  do  so  now  because  I  notice  that  many  persons, 
from  whom  I  did  not  expect  so  early  a  recognition 
of  his  character  and  services,  have  announced  that 
they  are  disposed  to  support  him  for  the  presi 
dency  in  1880,  or  indicated  the  opinion  that  they 
expect  his  nomination  and  election.  I  may  say, 
without  assuming  anything,  that  I  have  enjoyed 
the  friendship  of  General  Grant  for  many  years, 
and  I  am  not  anxious  that  he  should  be  again 
President  of  the  United  States.  But  I  foresee  that 
he  is  likely  to  be  President.  I  do  not  know  that 
the  purpose  to  elect  him  is  universal,  but  it  appears 
to  be  very  strong  among  the  members  of  the  Re 
publican  party,  and  I  am  disposed  to  see  why  it  is 
that  they  look  to  General  Grant.  The  instincts  of 
great  bodies  of  men  usually  have  some  good  foun 
dation,  especially  when  the  public  sentiment  runs 
for  a  long  time  in  one  direction,  and  there  is  no 
apparent  moving  force  to  the  current.  General 
Grant  has  been  around  the  world.  He  has  been  in 

\ 

all  the  principal  countries  of  Europe  and  of  Asia, 
and  if  in  those  countries  severally  there  has  been 
one  person,  the  ruler  perhaps,  who  has  been  esti 
mated  as  a  more  important  personage  than  General 


THIRD   TERM.  2$l 

Grant,  it  appears  to  be  but  a  repetition  of  what  oc 
curred  in  Greece  when  a  vote  was  taken  among 
the  commanders  upon  the  question  who  was  first 
and  who  was  second.  Each  officer  voted  for  him 
self  first,  and  Themistocles  second.  If  you  con 
sider  General  Grant's  career,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  he  is  among 
the  first  six  men  of  whom  history  has  preserved 
any  account ;  and  if  in  future  ages  there  shall  be 
those  who  claim  for  him  the  first  place,  it  will  not 
be  an  extraordinary  thing.  Do  you  consider  that 
he  commanded  more  men  for  a  period  of  fifteen 
months  than  were  ever  under  the  command  of  any 
other  general  in  ancient  or  modern  times  since  the 
days  of  Xerxes?  That  the  theatre  of  his  opera 
tions  was  as  large  as  the  entire  scope  of  Napoleon's 
campaigns  from  Egypt  to  Russia?  That  he  never 
received  a  suggestion  or  an  order  from  a  superior 
in  office  after  he  became  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
Army?  That  he  never  held  a  council  of  war? 
That  he  conducted  operations  at  the  same  time  up 
and  down  the  Mississippi  River,  across  the  conti 
nent,  along  the  coast  from  Annapolis  to  Galveston, 
and  penetrated  the  Confederacy  at  two  or  three 
points  at  the  same  time?  That  never,  never  in  the 
field,  where  he  was  in  command  personally,  were 
the  troops  under  his  orders  routed,  though  they 
were  often  shattered  and  afflicted  by  the  severities 


232  GENERAL   GRANT. 

of  the  enemy's  attacks?  That  they  were  never 
disheartened,  discouraged,  or  demoralized,  and 
that  he  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion  the 
greatest  war  of  modern  times?  Is  it  strange, 
then,  that  in  all  countries,  even  when  stripped 
of  the  dignities  of  office  and  the  formalities  of 
power,  he  everywhere  has  been  recognized  as 
the  first  personage  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  ? 
Under  these  circumstances,  is  it  strange  that  the 
Republican  party  of  this  country  turns  to  him  ?  I 
have  said  this  of  General  Grant,  not  because  I  want 
him  nominated  for  the  presidency.  I  think  it  has 
responsibilities  from  which  he  may  well  shrink.  I 
do  not  know  that  an  election  will  add  to  his  fame. 
I  am  sure  it  will  not  increase  his  happiness.  But 
there  have  been  times  when  even  in  Massachusetts, 
and  in  Republican  assemblies,  it  was  not  easy  to 
represent  General  Grant  as  he  is — a  man  of  imper 
turbable  spirit,  full  of  patriotism,  animated  by  a 
plain  and  loving  sense  of  justice,  and  anxious — 
more  anxious,  perhaps,  than  any  other  American 
citizen — for  the  perpetuity  of  our  institutions,  for 
the  preservation  of  our  national  honor,  and  for 
the  glory  and  prosperity  of  his  country." 

THE  END. 


RE 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


//IM 


1KUUUC 


1981 


iStJANlB'y- 


fio 

MAY  0  91995 

• — • 

CIRCULATION  OPDT 


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